Sir Thomas Maitland, the mastery of the Mediterranean

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BUILDERS OF
GREATER BRITAIN

Edited by H. F. WILSON, M.A.

Barrister-a t-Laiv
Late Fellcnu of Trinity College, Cambridge

DEDICATED BT SPECIAL
PERMISSION TO HER
MAJESTY THE QUEEN

BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

1. SIR WALTER RALEGH ; the British Dominion of

the West. By MARTIN A. S. Hume.

2. SIR THOMAS MAITLAND ; the Mastery of the

Mediterranean. By Walter Frewen Lord.

3. JOHN CABOT AND HIS SONS ; the Discovery of

North America. By C. Raymond Beazley, M. A.

4. LORD CLIVE; the Foundation of British Rule in

India. By Sir A. J. Arbuthnot, K.C.S.L, CLE.

5. EDWARD GIBBON WAKEFIELD ; the Coloni-

sation of South Australia and New Zealand. By
R. Garnett, C.B., LL.D.

6. RAJAH BROOKE ; the Englishman as Ruler of an

Eastern State. By Sir Spenser St John, G. C. M. G.

7. ADMIRAL PHILLIP ; the Founding of New South

Wales. By Louis Becke and Walter Jeffrey.

8. SIR STAMFORD RAFFLES ; England in the Far

East. By the Editor.

Builders
of
Greater Britain

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND

lEUTENANT GENERAL THE RiGHT HONOURABLE SIR THOMAS MAITLAND.

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND

THE MASTERY OF THE MEDITERRANEAN

WALTER FREWEN LORD

It

AUTHOR OF

THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND

AND

THE LOST EMPIRES OF THE MODERN WORLD

IVitk Photogravure Frontispiece and Maps

LONDON
T. FISHER UNWIN

PATERNOSTER SQUARE

MDCCCXCVII

?D

S^.

0^

Copyright by T. Fisher Uuwin, 1897,/^^ Great Britain and
the United States of America

PREFACE

In this volume it is not proposed to narrate
the emotions of the Countess of Lauderdale
on receiving her son's first letter from school.
Nor shall we be concerned with the good
advice given to Thomas Maitland on entering
the army. We shall not occupy ourselves
with Thomas Maitland's favourite books or
pastimes, or with his spiritual difficulties (if
he had any), or with his social successes and
embarrassments.

The boyhood and youth of great men is
a subject over which much time has been
spent. One would not say that the time was
wasted ; for the results of so much labour
form a perennial source of consolation for
parents. If a boy is dull, they can always
recall Clive the scapegrace, Lawrence the dunce,
ana that very stupid and awkward young man

^13170

xii PREFACE

Arthur Wellesley. If a boy is good at his
books they may remember the scholarly Warren
Hastings, the brilliant Dupleix, the exception-
ally astute Napoleon Buonaparte.

But the very results that offer so much
consolation to parents are, from their varied
nature, a source of perplexity to historians and
historical students. If any general conclusion
can be drawn from so much conflicting evi-
dence, it would appear to be this : that if a
man has sufficient vital force to assimilate and
carry with him through life that immense mass
of useless information which is known as the
education of a gentleman, his education will
perhaps make him a more agreeable companion
for a journey, or a more brilliant after-dinner
speaker than his unlettered fellow ; but it will
not help him to succeed in life. He will
succeed in spite of his learning, and not
in consequence of it. Too many dull and
ignorant men have succeeded for this position
to be impugned ; too many highly trained and
brilliant men have failed. Having wasted their
force in book-learning, they have not vitality
enough to face successfully the hard work of
the education of life ; and they sink, like

PREFACE xiii

Barbarossa, in the flood, brilliantly apparelled
but drowned by the tide.

We have, then, to remark that Maitland,
when he commenced his career as a colonial
administrator, started with this double advant-
age, that he was born in the purple and that
he was a totally uneducated man. The eccentric
scribble that he dignified by the name of his
handwriting is not the handiwork of one who
thinks himself too grand to write distinctly
(according to the foolish sneer, which once
had a vogue, that the aristocracy are all un-
educated) ; it is the handiwork of a man who
does not know how to write. His signature
reads just as well upside down as not. During
an age when classical quotations were the only
recognised mark of an educated gentleman, Mait-
land, throughout a long Parliamentary career,
and in the course of an official correspondence
almost unparalleled for its voluminousness, never
once broke out into Latin. He once quoted
Swift in the House of Commons ; he once
referred the Secretary of State to Adam Smith.
These were the authors who recommended
themselves to his intelligence. Himself a man
capable of any quantity of hard work, provided

xiv PREFACE

that there was human interest in it, he could
appreciate (although he did not agree with)
Adam Smith. The masculine common sense
of Swift, his savage satire and his consummate
knowledge of mankind, appealed to one whose
lifelong study was man, and who brought to
that pursuit a savage and domineering temper.

Throughout an official career of twenty-seven
years his labours were Herculean, and he had
no intervals of learned leisure. He was quite
incapable of turning good English into in-
different Latin, or of discovering new species
of plants or animals, or of tracing curves to
banish ennui, or of writing treatises on the
Apostolical Succession. Life to Maitland
meant work ; work that it would have crushed
ordinary men even to attempt. His diversion,
his solace, was gross indulgence. He was not
a brilliant or a popular man. He was a great
human force controlled and driven by a will
of iron. Principles he abhorred ; they were
to him as a red rag to a bull. * Detestable
principles' or 'ridiculous principles,' he some-
times writes of, but never of principles that
deserve respect. But we must not allow our-
selves to be led away into the common and

PREFACE XV

totally erroneous view of Maitland's character
which condemns him as a gross and brutal
tyrant. His life was illuminated and dignified
by his unbending devotion to duty. One
principle there was to which Maitland owed
and rendered the loftiest reverence — the rever-
ence of a life's devotion. It was, in the stately
language of the Prayer Book, * The safety,
honour and welfare of His Majesty and his
dominions/

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

Descent — The Law — The Army — India — Maitland the

Little Englander, . . . . . i

CHAPTER II

His Conversion and Active Parliamentary Career to its

Close, . . . . . . x8

CHAPTER III

San Domingo — The West Indian Interest — Toussaint

L'Ouverture — Maitland * rescues and retires,' . , 26

CHAPTER IV

The United States — Belleisle — The Board of Control —
The Privy Council — Estimate of Maitland as a
Soldier and as a Statesman, . . . .50

CHAPTER V

Ceylon — Zeal and Energy — Disastrous Effects on the
Colony of Ceylon of Frederick North's Activity —
Impending Ruin, ...... 72

xvii d

xviii CONTENTS

CHAPTER VI

PAGE

Ceylon — Common Sense — Maitland's Restorative Action
— He will not be Goaded into War — He reforms
THE Services, ...... 8o

CHAPTER VII

Ceylon — The Mutiny at Vellore — Interruption or Mait-
land's Work BY Bentinck's Ineptitude — Maitland rescues
Madras, and lectures the Governor General . . 98

CHAPTER VIII

Ceylon — Internal Administration — Quarrel with the

Chief Justice — Victory of Maitland, . . . 107

CHAPTER IX

Ceylon — Conclusion of His Term — He is called a * Pagan '
— Mr Wilberforce urges Lord Castlereagh to rebuke
the Governor — Castlereagh's Coldness — The Mutiny
at Seringapatam — Mackintosh's Estimate of Mait-
land's Work, . . . . . .117

CHAPTER X

Malta — Ancient and Modern Rivalries in the Medi-
terranean — The Route to the East — The Plague —
An Atmosphere of Arsenic and Brimstone — Quarrel
WITH the Doctors 5 They are Routed — Quarrel with
THE Admiral — Success of Maitland's Measures, . 130

CHAPTER XI

Malta — Internal Affairs — The Barbary States — Sanctuary
— Authority of the Holy See — Land Reforms — The
Universita — The Hospital, . . . .148

CONTENTS xix

CHAPTER XII

PAGE

The Ionian Islands — Early Difficulties — Anarchy and
Bankruptcy of the Islands — Constitution-mongering
— Maitland is spied upon — His Revenge, . .176

CHAPTER XIII

The Ionian Islands — The Constitution — Extreme Com-
plexity OF THE Situation — Ratification of the Con-
stitution — The Most Distinguished Order of St
Michael and St George, . . . .193

CHAPTER XIV
The Ionian Islands — Cession of Parga, . . .215

CHAPTER XV

The Ionian Islands — Capodistrias -v. Maitland — Capo-

DISTRIAS AT CiRENCESTER CaSTLEREAGH AT CrAY ThE

Cabinet supports Maitland, . , . .223

CHAPTER XVI

The Ionian Islands — Revolt in the Morea — Attacks on
Maitland in Parliament — Gross Misrepresentations
of Joseph Hume, ...... 243

CHAPTER XVII

The Ionian Islands — Internal Affairs — Character of the
People — Their Winning Manners — Their Failings —
Sudden Death of Sir Thomas Maitland, . . 270

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Portrait* or Sir Thomas Maitland, from an Engravimg by

Thomas Lupton, after J. Hopner, R.A. . Frontispiece

Map or Ceylon in 1805, showing Extent of British Occu-
pation, . . . . .to face page 74

Map of the Mediterranean, illustrating the Growth of

British Influence, 1661-1897, • • to face page 139

Note. — * the Editor desires to express his acknoivledgments to the Earl of
Lauderdale (the owner of the original picture) and Sir Arthur Lyon
Fremantle (the Governor of Malta), for their assistance in con-
nection ivith this portrait.

Sir Thomas Maitland

CHAPTER I

DESCENT THE LAW THE ARMY INDIA

MAITLAND THE LITTLE ENGLANDER

The Maitland clan is one of the oldest and sturdiest
of the stubborn stock of Scotch nobility. They were
of Norman descent, and did not become distinctively
Scottish until the fourteenth century. From the first
they were fighters, remarkable even among Border
nobles for vigour, and still more for craft. Although
they were always conspicuous figures in the fighting
services, yet, even in the days when every man must
be a soldier, it was more in the active conduct of
public affairs than in battle that the Maitlands excelled.
They were ever busy, active public men, with their
full share of the unscrupulousness of their age and
a considerable gift of successful intrigue. After the
family had remained for four hundred years of simple
knightly rank, their chief was in the sixteenth century
raised to the peerage ; and in the year 1624, was
advanced to the dignity of an Earldom by the title

2 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

of Earl of Lauderdale. The second Earl was the
Minister of Charles II. ; and of all the Lauderdales,
is perhaps the one whose name is best known to
students of English History. The initial letter of
his title formed the last letter of the famous ' Cabal.'

In John, second Earl and first and only Duke
of Lauderdale, the Maitland characteristics found
their completest development. He plunged into
public affairs with all the ardour of a man pursuing
a favourite sport. Public life was as the breath
of his nostrils. He brought to it immense personal
vigour, considerable suppleness in recommending him-
self to his Sovereign, and a powerful mind destitute
of scruples. He looked very closely after his own
interests, and obtained the Dukedom of Lauderdale
and the Marquisate of March. His carelessness of
others earned for him the reputation of ' the wicked
Duke,' and he lived riotously and somewhat brutally
a very full and active life of sixty-six years. His two
principal titles died with him, but his brother
succeeded to the Earldom. He possessed but little
of the Duke's capacity, but all of his violence and
assertiveness ; and he got himself into many awkward
places. His son Richard did even worse : floundered
in the dangerous mire of Jacobite politics, was pro-
scribed and exiled, and died at Paris out of favour
with both William and James II. The fifth Earl,
Richard's brother, warned perhaps by his predecessor's
mistakes, accepted the Revolution, and accepted also

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 3

the secondary position to which the violence and
blunders of his kinsmen had reduced the once
mighty house of Maitland. He lived quietly, and
his son, the sixth Earl, was quite inconspicuous.

But with the marriage of the seventh Earl a new
strain entered the Maitland stock. The days of that
wild statesmanship which we may almost without
exaggeration call predatory politics ; the days when a
Maitland, bringing with him all the daring and reckless
acquisitiveness of the Border noble, could enter upon
the business of state as a gamester, and make the most
for himself out of the scramble — these days were fast
passing away. The blindness with which the third,
fourth and fifth Earls had continued to gamble with
public life, while soberer men accepted the altered
conditions of the nation and were profiting by them,
had reduced the Earldom of Lauderdale to the position
of a comparatively insignificant Scotch peerage.

The marriage of the seventh Earl altered that state
of things. James, Earl of Lauderdale, may be said to
have married beneath him. Instead of selecting for
his wife a Seton, a Murray or a Gordon, he espoused
Mary, daughter of Alderman Sir Thomas Lombe, and
grand-daughter of a weaver, a native of Norwich. The
Alderman, her father, had accumulated a fortune — no
very great fortune as men count fortunes to-day, but
something for the eighteenth century — ^^ 120,000.
The Countess of Lauderdale's share of this was one-
half : but it was not so much the modest sum of ^^60,000

4 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

that served the Maitlands, as the mingling of their
lawless blood with the sober and thrifty strain of the
old worsted-weaver of Norwich.

Not that any great difference was apparent in the
eighth Earl. He was a true Maitland of the old type ;
ever to the fore in public life, quarrelsome, defiant,
unscrupulous. From a violent Whig he became, in
late life, a violent Tory ; but he regained the old
Maitland trick of improving his fortunes, and if he
took an unprofitable side from a mistaken estimate
as to which was the winning cause, he at any rate
mastered the rules of public life, and showed consider-
able talent in availing himself of them. He very
nearly succeeded in getting himself made Governor-
General of India.

It was in Thomas, the second son of the seventh
Earl, the subject of this biography, that the daring
and craft of the Maitlands showed itself so happily
blended with the patience, the conciliatory temper,
and the habit of compromise which go to make the
successful man of business ; qualities that he may very
well have inherited from the Alderman's daughter.

The reading of Maitland's character in the light or
his family history is by no means unprofitable. The
ease with which, from the outset of his public career,
he rose to every situation, however complicated, was
derived from twenty generations of ancestors accus-
tomed to public life. The savage glee with which he
fell on and exterminated an enemy, when he could

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 5

safely indulge his passion for a rousing quarrel, no less
than the caution which impelled him to bear any
affront with saintly meekness so long as it was unsafe
to resent it, may all be traced to the instinct of
centuries of Border strife. To the same source we
may safely ascribe the amazing assurance with which
he frequently announced to the Secretary of State
that he was about to disobey orders. A long line of
Maitlands accustomed to be a law unto themselves
had issued in an enfant terrible of the service. But
the service never lost by his disobedience. No
Secretary ever crossed him without injuring the public
interests ; for Maitland's sagacity was infallible. In
later life his manners were atrocious ; even Bathurst
deplored them. But here ends the tale of whatever
qualities, good or bad, he may have inherited from
his father's ancestry. He was the first and per-
haps the only Maitland who was a sound financier.
Dearly he loved to balance his budget ; dearly he
loved to roll up a surplus. In the public service he
was not only careful, he was miserly. In private life
he lived lavishly, as his forbears had done who had
always commanded money without stint, either from
raiding, or from illustrious alliances, or from predatory
excursions on the public treasury. But here, again,
the habits of the great noble were corrected by the
thriftiness of the weaver of Norwich. Though lavish,
Maitland was not extravagant. Amid the howls of
abuse that were heard whenever Maitland's name was

6 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

mentioned, we discern no hint of dissatisfaction either
at his public or private expenditure. He was accused
of every fault of which a public man could be guilty,
and of every private failing except parsimony. Spite
is always blind, so we should expect this to be the
very fault that he was inclined to ; but it was not so.
At the time of his death, he was in treaty for the
purchase of No. 7 New Burlington Street — not a
very palatial or fashionable residence. His will was
proved under ^30,000. It was re-sworn two years
later under ^40,000, either in consequence of some
legacies falling in, or in consequence of a sudden rise
in the value of property owing to the rapid industrial
development that was, at that time, taking place all
over England.

At the time of Maitland's death, however, all that
he had to live upon was his pension, and the interest
on ^30^00. If we say ^^4000 a year altogether, we
shall be near the mark. This is not an unbecoming
provision for a man of his rank ; but it is nothing to
the sum that he might have laid by with parsimony
out of the very large income of ^^ 13,000 a year that
he had enjoyed for the last eleven years of his life.

Such, as far as birth and descent can define a man,
was Thomas Maitland j a man who, more than most,
must be judged, if he is to be judged fairly, by his
work ; for the work was the man.

The place and date of his birth are uncertain. His
elder brother, afterwards the eighth Earl of Lauder-

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 7

dale, was born in the month of January 1759 at
the family seat, Hatton House, Ratho, Midlothian.
Thomas Maitland's birth is usually assigned to the
winter of the same year. Thus he was one year
younger than Nelson, and ten years older than
Napoleon and Wellington. Probably he was born
at Ratho, like his elder brother.

The second son of the seventh Earl of Lauderdale,
Thomas Maitland was destined for the Bar, and
was entered at Lincoln's Inn on the 14th of May
1774. Recognised authority says that he entered
the House of Commons in the same year as member
for the Haddingtonshire Burghs. But inasmuch as he
was only fifteen years old at the time, we may be
permitted for once to question recognised authority.
The law did not attract him; and when in 1778
the Seaforth Highlanders were raised, he obtained a
commission. The regiment was sent to the Channel
Islands ; and in these agreeable quarters Maitland
spent the years from 1778 to 1781. In June of the
latter year the Seaforth Highlanders sailed from Ply-
mouth to the East Indies, and arrived at Madras in
April 1782.

If life in the Channel Islands had been pleasantly
monotonous, life in the East Indies was desperately
exciting ; and if Maitland had had that blood in him
that makes the great soldier, assuredly he would never
have turned his back on the service. While at home
he must have chafed beyond endurance at the disasters

8 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

our arms were yearly suffering in North America.
In India he arrived at the moment when the English
cause seemed lost for ever ; for he landed in the
middle of the famous naval duel between Hughes and
SufFren. It was to sheer good fortune only that
England was indebted on this occasion for the
preservation of her Eastern Empire. Here was food
for reflection ; food of the most stimulating kind for
the man who is to develop into the great commander.
Maitland saw a little active service, and made good
use of his time, as he afterwards showed when address-
ing the House of Commons on Indian affairs ; but he
had not found his true sphere of action. Nothing
that the army had to offer was beyond his reach ; for
he was much employed at headquarters, and patronised
by Lord Cornwallis. But the army did not attract
him. He seems to have tired of it, as he tired of the
Bar ; and at the end of the year 1 790 he returned to
England with the rank of Major, and entered Parlia-
ment as member for the Haddington Burghs.

At the age of thirty-two he commenced his third
career. Conscious of abilities far above the average, he
must yet have had to confess that after seventeen years
of endeavour he was still, in effect, a failure. He set
to work with the bitter energy of a man who is dis-
appointed, but not quite beaten yet, and soon made
himself felt with a vengeance. On the 28th of
February 1791 he delivered his maiden speech: it
was on the occasion of the war with Tippoo Sahib. It

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 9

was at once plain that he would make a conspicuous
parliamentary figure, but of what kind was not clear
until he had sat down : after that there was no longer
a doubt. He was what we now call a Little Englander,
and one of the earliest of parliamentary obstructionists.

In the course of his speech he violently attacked
the policy of the war. It had been said that Tippoo
was a 'usurper.' But who were we to talk about
* usurpers ' ? we were usurpers ourselves. From every
point of view he condemned the war ; and later on in
his speech he lectured the House on the real nature
of virtue. 'Goodness,' he said, 'is not an inert or
speculative quality, but consists in exertion for the
benefit and happiness of mankind.' On this laudable
sentiment he contrived to found a spiteful and abusive
assault on Warren Hastings, of all people. He was
called to order by the Speaker. This was a most
unexpected attitude for the future empire-maker to
assume ; and he was naturally welcomed with rapture
by the Little Englanders of the day. He had a fine
presence, an easy flow of good language, and un-
daunted courage. From the assurance with which
he prostituted his great local knowledge by talking
what he must have known to be nonsense, and
dangerous nonsense, it was clear that he had no
scruples ; and he readily mastered the forms of the
House.

Thoroughness was the dominant note of Maitland's
character. As a Great Englander no man was greater ;

lo BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

as a Little Englander no man was more petty. Later
in life, when face to face with real difficulties, his
sagacity was never at fault. Often he was rude, not
infrequently insubordinate : but never wrong. In
Parliament, and while the attitude that he had taken
up demanded that he should talk nonsense, no man
talked greater nonsense than Maitland, or talked
more of it or with a more convincing air. He now
allied himself with the Whitbreads and the Sawbridges
and the Greys, and particularly distinguished himself
in the OczakofF debate on the I2th of April 1791.
The debate was on an early stage of the then nascent
Eastern question, and the problem was whether
England was to support her representations by a show
of armed force. Maitland was, of course, opposed to
anything in the nature of an armed manifestation, and
stoutly declared that he would be no party to bullying
Russia. Bullying Russia ! One wonders how he con-
trived to talk such astounding rubbish with a grave
face ; and how he had managed to stifle his sense of
humour. He wound up by declaring that not even
for Constantinople itself should we be justified in
going to war with Russia. Perhaps not : there are
many who agree with Maitland ; but the Eastern
question is not one to be so easily settled as that, and
has troubled the sleep of a century of statesmen since
he settled it so completely to his own satisfaction.

Early in the year 1792, on the Address of Thanks
for the speech from the throne, there was a compli-

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND ii

mentary reference to the Indian army, and Maitland
would have none of it. He stoutly defended Tippoo
Sahib. That much-injured Prince had been grossly
oppressed by tyrannical England : his only crime was
that he was a man of great abilities. Here Maitland
showed himself more Royalist than the King ; for all
native authorities agree that if Haidar was born to
found an Empire, Tippoo was born to lose it : — if not
to England then to some other enemy.

Maitland was one of the most prominent of the
' Friends of the People ' : others were Charles Grey,
Alderman Sawbridge, Samuel Whitbread and R. B.
Sheridan. On the 26th of April 1792, the Committee
met at the Freemasons' Tavern and drew up their
demand for Parliamentary Reform, followed by an
address to the people of Great Britain. Two peers
only signed : Lauderdale, Maitland's brother, and
Kinnaird. They were now sailing very near the
wind, and the next month a proclamation was
issued against seditious writings. Maitland, who was
afraid of nobody, openly declared from his place in
Parliament that the proclamation was intended to
stir up discord and blast the cause of Parliamentary
Reform. The proclamation was followed up by
Dundas's Alien Bill, requiring all immigrants to give
an account of themselves. The French Revolution
was at its height, and ' Revolutionary Principles * (of
which, throughout his official career, Maitland always
showed a proper horror) were a bugbear to most

12 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

Englishmen. But Maitland championed the Revolu-
tion, and would not allow that the unrestricted in-
gress of aliens — or 'foreign emissaries' as they were
called — was any danger to the kingdom.

A month later he made an appeal to the House
to abridge the trial of Warren Hastings. This ill-
used man, he said, had returned from India six years
before in such a state of health that no one would
have given him six years to live. He had not only
lived six years, but had endured throughout the
whole of that time the most cruel persecution. Such
oppression was a reflection on our national system
of justice, and called for the attention of the House.

This is, indeed, a surprising speech from the Mait-
land who was called to order in his maiden speech
for a most indecent attack on the man whose cause
he was now championing.

A fortnight later, on the 22d of February 1793,
he supported the motion forbidding the construction
of barracks. This appears to be a harmless, and even
a useful way of spending public money. Since we
must have an army, it is surely no more than our
duty to make our men comfortable. But Maitland
did not take that view. Never was he in finer form.
To build barracks, he urged, would be to overthrow
the British Constitution. It appeared that our Home
army had reached the alarming total of 18,000 men.
Naturally, the 18,000,000 of our civilian population
would be at the mercy of such a band of Pras-

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 13

torians. As it was, we were only saved from a
military despotism by the half-civilian character of
the soldiers. Once herd them together in barracks,
and our liberties were gone for ever. He returned
to the subject next year in the debate on the Army
Estimates, by which time the barracks had been built
at the cost of ^^ 100,000. This shocking waste of
public money was not only unnecessary, but clearly
unconstitutional. As the question was settled, how-
ever, he proceeded to attack the policy of employing
foreigners in places of trust. Maitland, who had
shown such touching confidence in immigrants from
a land at war with us, was horrified at the idea of
trusting an ally. Why ! he exclaimed, if this kind
of conduct were persisted in, we might actually see
a Hessian in command at Portsmouth ! Britannia,
as Maitland imagined her at this epoch, was a most
hysterical female. She must not take steps to defend
herself against her enemies, for that would be showing
suspicion, which would be unkind. She dares not trust
her allies ; she is frightened of her own soldiers.

He was now absorbed in one of the most pernicious
occupations that a Member of Parliament can indulge
in, a violent diatribe against our foreign policy — on
this occasion our Mediterranean policy. Of course
the foreign policy of the country is, within certain
usually admitted limits, a proper subject for discussion ;
but Maitland's attack was hardly more than indis-
criminate abuse. It was dangerous, however, because

14 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

he was a soldier, and a soldier of experience. It was
this attitude, persisted in by Maitland's party long
after Maitland deserted it, that perpetually misled
Napoleon as to the stability of England's policy in
after years.

The particular incidents that excited Maitland's
anger were the Toulon Expedition and the occupa-
tion of Corsica. These now half-forgotten episodes
in the great drama of the French Revolution brought
us considerable discomfiture : and yet they were, at
the time, wise moves. The capture of Toulon was
intended to give a rallying point for the Royalist
party in France. But the Royalist feeling did not
underlie the whole country ; it lay in patches, and
the Revolutionary party, moving on inner lines, was
able to attack the Royalists in detail and subdue them.
The English were in this way driven out of Toulon ;
but there was no cause for bemoaning our failure,
for success had never been anticipated except from
the co-operation of the French. The occupation of
Corsica certainly had an unfortunate ending ; but it
was a good move strategically, and gave us the com-
plete control (if we had employed an Admiral capable
of seizing the opportunity) of the politics of Italy.
We lost our chance owing to the incapacity of
Admiral Hotham ; but the chance was there, and
the episodes of the conquest of Corsica were brilliant
and highly creditable to the navy.

Maitland's attitude throughout was little short of

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 15

scandalous, but it was partly redeemed by its absurdity.
What did it signify, he angrily inquired, if the French
navy were paralysed by our occupation of Toulon ?
Nobody could call the destruction of the enemy's
fleet a military advantage. Besides, the whole expedi-
tion was a monument of corruption and incapacity.
He violently abused Lord Hood, a most gallant old
sailor, who was half killing himself with overwork.
He ridiculed the idea of capturing Corsica with only
1400 soldiers. As a matter of fact, the island was
captured without any soldiers at all, and by the almost
unsupported efforts of the navy. It is difficult to
say which of the two cuts the more pitiful figure —
Maitland in Parliament denouncing the attempt to
capture Corsica, or General Dundas in Corsica refusing
to make the attempt. On the motion to inquire
into Hood's * failure ' at Toulon, 35 members sup-
ported Maitland, and 168 voted against him. Samuel
Whitbread told with Maitland.

One would think that the Corsican debate was
enough of mischievous folly for one session, but this
extraordinary man, who was miserable unless furiously
active, found an occasion, only four days after the
last division, to outdo all his previous performances.

On the 14th of April 1794, it was moved that the
House go into committee on the Bill to permit the
enlistment of Frenchmen who had fled their own
country, and to authorise the granting of commissions
to them. Alien immigrants are not, as a rule, the

i6 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

best stuff out of which to make soldiers or leaders of
soldiers. But we must recall the times. The French
Revolution was at its height, and the emigrants from
France were almost without exception men of position,
while many of them, of course, were nobles. Mait-
land's ravings on the occasion of the Bill to permit
their enlistment had a real basis in his own consti-
tutional antipathy to 'foreigners.' This antipathy
burst out a quarter of a century later in his persecution
of De Bosset — for which he had to pay dearly. But
on the occasion of the Bill of 1 794, he became almost
hysterical. Let the House consider, he urged, that
any Frenchman taken in arms against his country
would certainly be hanged ; the King's commission
would avail him nothing. From hanging French
prisoners it was but a step to hanging English
prisoners ; of course we should be goaded into re-
taliation, and then what frightful passions would be
unchained. The Bill, he declared, militated against
Magna Carta, against the Bill of Rights, and against
the Act of Succession. As Maitland did not specify
the Ten Commandments, we must infer that he did
not think that the Bill actually infringed the
Decalogue.

Speeches like this lose nine-tenths of their effect if
unsupported by an enterprising press and a good
system of sensational reporting. There is no use in
addressing gallery speeches to hard-headed city men
and shrewd old country squires. They are perfectly

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 17

capable of distinguishing sense from nonsense ; it is the
idle or hurried readers of next morning who admire
tirades of this kind, who are influenced by them,
and who make the sensation-monger's public. This
public was totally lacking to Maitland ; for complete
parliamentary success he was born a century too soon.
However, he made one final demonstration before
he abandoned the part of agitator. The ministry
determined to suspend the Habeas Corpus Act for the
purpose of dealing with secret societies and the pro-
paganda of treasonable and revolutionary literature.
Naturally the measure was liberally denounced : it
was a subversion of our liberties, it was an attempt to
introduce lettres de cachet^ it was an odious piece of
despotism. At half past three in the morning of the
1 6th of May 1794, the Bill passed first and second
readings and committee after eleven obstructive
divisions, in four of which Maitland was teller, and in
which he was left in minorities declining from 39 in
a house of 240, to 13 in a house of 121. Third
reading was fixed for three o'clock on the next day,
Saturday, and the Bill was passed at three o'clock on
Sunday morning after a twelve hours' debate.

CHAPTER II

HIS CONVERSION AND ACTIVE PARLIAMENTARY
CAREER TO ITS CLOSE

Maitland never appeared again as an obstructionist,
or a Little Englander. He gradually withdrew from
the debates, and at the end of 1797 obtained the San
Domingo command. In that year he entered on his
twenty-seven years of public service, and though he
was often in Parliament, he rarely spoke, and always as
an Imperialist. Although we shall be dealing with
some events out of their due place, it will be con-
venient to finish our examination of Maitland's par-
liamentary career at once. Before we enter on this
examination, however, there is a question (which every
student of Maitland's life will ask himself) that we
must inevitably spend some time in considering. The
question, of course, is how to account for this sudden
and complete abandonment of a cause in which he
had shown so much fervour.

The type of man who agitates until he is bought, is
a very familiar and a very commonplace type. Is this
all that Maitland was ? The facts would appear, at

18

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 19

any rate superficially, to go to show that this is really
all that there was in Maitland. After six years of
totally unscrupulous parliamentary agitation he got
what he wanted : so will say his enemies. But when
we say 'totally' unscrupulous, we must admit some
reserves. In Parliament, it is true, he did not hesitate
to take any step, however absurd and undignified, which
brought him into notice. But he lacked the full
measure of the demagogue's spirit, in that he would
not go on the streets. He did not hobnob in city
coffee-houses like Popham, or allow himself the licence
of Wilkes. Here then are * pointers ' which, in the
absence of documents, may help us to realise what
Maitland's nature was. He had a great sense of the
dignity of the service ; and he had intense family pride.
These are decided drawbacks to a man who proposes
to embrace the career of a demagogue — ^supposing
that to have been Maitland's object. But the way in
which he entered on his duties as a colonial adminis-
trator show almost conclusively that Maitland was a
different stamp of man altogether from the man who
agitates in order that he may be bought. Such a
creature almost invariably rests content with his
*job' when once it is secured. He does not earn the
respect of his new employers ; still less is he ever in
the position to master them. He is bought, and there
is an end of him. Nor, while he lives, is he given, as
a rule, to overworking himself.

When we consider the way in which Maitland

20 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

devoted himself to his country's service, the mountains
of difficulties that he overcame, and the extent to
v^^hich he v^^as leant on and trusted by the Home
Government, wg can no longer regard him as an
agitator bought and paid for. So we come back to the
original question of how we are to explain the egregious
parliamentary exhibition of the years 1 790-1 794.

In the absence of documents (an absence which
will probably be permanent, for Maitland was a care-
fill man), we must come to a conclusion something
like the following. It was not with any definite idea
of earning an appointment that Maitland set out to
make himself a parliamentary nuisance. He entered
the House of Commons with the experimental views
of life that a man is apt to cherish who has thought
and acted much, yet without effect ; who with
infinite labour has yet achieved nothing. Since all
was uncertain in this life of chances, he took the first
chance that came — the parliamentary opening. He
had seen but little of London since he was quite a
young man, and he probably overrated the attractions
of a parliamentary career. A success he had certainly
attained ; but after the debate on the Habeas Corpus
Act, he must have asked himself whether such a
success was not, in effect, the worst of failures. His
reward when it came was not of those for which men
sell themselves — for San Domingo was far indeed from
being a bed of roses. Even San Domingo was not
offered him until November 1797; so it can hardly

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 21

be said to have been offered with that promptitude
that would justify us in calling it a bribe. On the
whole, we must conclude that Maitland's early parlia-
mentary career is to be looked on rather as a young
man's mistake or a young man's extravagance, than
a serious step taken with serious views.

We do not get a glimpse of the real Maitland until
the year 1802, in the course of the debates prior to
the conclusion of the Treaty of Amiens. On the
14th of May 1802, he reviewed those provisions of
the treaty relating to subjects on which he had special
knowledge, commencing with Louisiana, which was
to be ceded by Spain to France. The alarmists, of
whom Maitland had formerly been the leader, were
panic-stricken over this clause. From Louisiana,
they declared, France would be able at one and the
same time to menace Mexico, the United States and
the British West Indies. Maitland reminded the
House that Louisiana was originally a French colony,
that it had long been in French hands, and that it had
always been, as he expressed it, 'totally imbecile.'
As to attacking the British West Indies (he went on),
France, in order to do that, must have ' passes from
the Lords Commissioners of His Majesty's Admiralty.'
Had honourable members, he continued with crushing
sarcasm, never heard of the British Navy ? Was it
possible that they could suppose that a great military
power was formidable to us so long as she was not
also a great naval power ?

22 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

He next turned to San Domingo, and warned the
House not to be deceived about the state of that island.
He had heard honourable members talk about the
' Free Republic ' of San Domingo. Let them not be
deluded : ' free anarchy ' would be nearer the mark.
As for the Cape of Good Hope, which we ceded by the
treaty, it was of the less consequence to us since we
retained Ceylon. The retention of that island practi-
cally made our East Indian possessions secure. The last
point was Malta, which he thought we were doing well
to evacuate, and on the whole he approved the treaty.

Here indeed is a most extraordinary contrast with
the Maitland of ten years before. But this is the
real Maitland, now at the age of forty-three, for the
first time in his life in his element. San Domingo
and the United States had wonderfully sobered him.
He had seen something of the real work of the empire,
and he had rapidly, and as if by instinct, grasped the
principles on which it was founded — the maintenance
of sea-power, the holding of points of vantage, the
ready surrender of all that was not vital, the con-
ciliatory temper, the moderation which is but the
expression of force in reserve. The empire had fired
Maitland in the way that nothing else had done ; his
speech has the true ring of statesmanship. The
empire, at any rate, was a thing over which there
must be no trifling. Here was work better worth
doing than scoring points over a Bill for the suspension
of the Habeas Corpus Act.

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 23

In the debate on the resumption of hostilities, he
spoke even more finely. In the course of December
1802, on the increased Army Estimates which Mait-
land supported, Samuel Whitbread made a tearful
speech in which he assured the House that France
meant no harm. He followed this up in May 1803
by defending France against our insults and trickeries.
Sebastiani's Report, he said, which was alleged as the
cause of the rupture or relations between France and
England, was only an answer to Robert Wilson's
' Egypt.' He mourned over the iniquities of England,
and inconveniently reminded his old colleague, Mait-
land, of his opinion that Malta, for which we were
going to war was not an important post for us to hold.

Maitland simply and finely replied that it was true
that he did not think much of Malta, although it
was a strong place. Personally, if he had been the
responsible minister he should not have gone to war
on account of Malta. But it was enough for him
that Malta was in the ultimatum ; and he should
embarrass the Ministry with no comments.

The event of the debate was the maiden speech
ot Dallas, afterwards Chief Justice of the Common
Pleas.

Samuel Whitbread had inquired with an air of
mournful mystification why we were going to war.
Dallas's peroration ran as follows : — ' For what are we
going to war ? It is fit, says the honourable gentle-
man, that the people of England should know. I

24 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

agree with him that it is ; and therefore to the
honourable gentleman and to the people of England,
I explicitly say we are going to war for Malta,
not for Malta only, but for Egypt, not for Egypt
only, but for India, not for India only, but for the
integrity and security of the British Empire, for
the cause of justice, good faith and freedom through-
out the civilized world.'

This fighting mood was now Maitland's own.
Not that he delivered many fighting speeches ; but
his temper, always belligerent, now led him to
attack huge masses of work, complicated situations
and difficult problems. The empire was his true
sphere of action. When he spoke, he spoke shortly
and moderately. He rapidly grew to acquire the
man of action's hatred of wordiness ; and beyond
that considerable change in his character, we shall
find that in the course of his official career he de-
veloped traits of character which not the most intimate
friend would have ventured to ascribe to him. He
was to show an admirable tact, an almost womanly
tenderness in handling men when coaxing could be
of use. He was to prove himself one of the greatest
of the builders of Greater Britain ; great not only
because of the vast extent of the work that he
accomplished, but because of the manner in which
he accomplished it.

It did not suffice for Maitland that a piece of work
was done ; it must be done in the right way, or he was

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 25

not satisfied. To attain this end there was nothing
he would not do. In the King's name he would
bully and cringe, if bullying and cringing would
advance His Majesty's service. His enemies said
that Tom Maitland would bully and cringe because
he liked doing so ; but nobody ever accused Tom
Maitland of being a patient man ; and yet on the
King's service he bore with affronts from his equals,
and impertinence from his inferiors, with a temper not
only under control, but apparently of angelic sweet-
ness. * The King's service ' was the talisman that
steadied and almost transformed him. If Maitland
was a bully, the first man that he bullied was him-
self; if he was a slave-driver, no slave was driven
harder than Maitland under the lash of his own
imperious will.

If there were no difficulties in any given course,
Maitland was not the man to make any ; but he
turned eagerly in some direction where he might
find difficulties. To overcome these he would coax
or bribe, menace or entertain, listen or bully, as
occasion served ; but his last argument, which he
always delivered fiercely as if threatening a blow, was,
' The King's service, sir.' And when on more awful
occasions Maitland would say, 'The honour of His
Majesty's service, sir,' opposition to his will seemed
to be rank treason, and the very air breathed courts-
martial.

CHAPTER III

SAN DOMINGO — THE WEST INDIAN INTEREST — TOUS-

SAINT l'oUVERTURE MAITLAND * RESCUES AND

RETIRES '

In 1897, the year of so many inspiriting national
reflections for Englishmen, we shall do well to recall
that one hundred years — no more — separate us from
a year not only of national humiliation, but of what
appeared at the time to be complete national collapse.

In the year 1797, George Washington completed
his second term in the Presidency, and was succeeded
by John Adams. This peaceful succession of Presi-
dent to President was the outward and visible sign
of political conditions justifying the moan, * The sun
of England's glory is set.' It was plain that North
America, our greatest and wealthiest colony, after
some years of hesitation had definitely resolved to
separate from the Mother Country.

We have found compensations elsewhere since then;
but in 1797, wherever we looked we saw nothing but
what emphasised the sense of disaster. In Europe
we were reeling under the first buffets of Napoleon

26

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 27

Buonaparte. We had been utterly and ignominiously
expelled from the Mediterranean ; we had lost our
trade there, and — which was worse — we had the
mortification of seeing that France intended to use
the Mediterranean as a route to the East. We were
only partly compensated for this serious loss by the
acquisition of the Cape of Good Hope. Both in
Leadenhall Street and in Calcutta, the deepest
anxiety prevailed : the East India merchants saw
ruin staring them in the face. America was gone,
the Mediterranean was gone, India was threatened.
At home things were even worse. Ireland was in
one of her most dangerous moods, and rebellion was
clearly imminent. The harvest failed, the Bank of
England suspended payment. Consols fell to 51.
Short of revolution there was nothing worse to
expect ; and revolution seemed not so far off to
some of us.

With our back to the wall we struck two heavy
blows — St Vincent and the Texel — and recovered
breath a little ; but even after these glorious victories
Collingwood — cheery, sanguine Collingwood — could
write, * It is a question whether we are to be any
longer a nation.'

These were the disheartening conditions under
which Maitland left England to assume the duties
of his first important colonial appointment. The
duties were themselves depressing, for they were the
duties attending the evacuation of San Domingo.

28 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

But Maitland carried them out with a brave and
confident bearing, and in the face of unparalleled
obstacles. * Unparalleled ' is a bold word ; we shall
have to see how far it is justified.

The important island of San Domingo, or Hispaniola,
or Hayti, was at this time an object of importance to
the West Indian interest. ' The West Indian interest '
sounds almost a mockery to-day ; but a century ago
it rivalled the East Indian interest. The basis of its
power, of course, was slavery. Ill-disposed people said
that the whole abolition movement was only a trade
agitation on the part of the East Indian interest.
When we remember how many serious, banking
names figure in the list of abolitionists we may,
perhaps, admit that there was a superficial justifica-
tion for the sneer. Whether there was more than
a superficial justification is not a question into which
we need inquire ; but that the West Indian interest
could ever have been spoken of as a rival to the East
Indian is a state of things that we find it hard to
realise to-day without some assistance, and we must
endeavour to realise it in order to understand Mait-
land*s troubles.

San Domingo was divided into two portions — the
west to France, the east to Spain. Since 1795 it
had been nominally all French. Since 1793 the
western portion had been in the hands of a British
expedition. In point of fact the whole island, outside
cantonments, was ruled by Toussaint L'Ouverturc, a

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 29

full-blooded negro. But there were signs that the
mulattos under Rigaud might succeed in overthrow-
ing him. The whites all inclined to England, because
of the decrees of 1791 (giving the mulattos the rights
of French citizens) and of 1793 (enfranchising the
slaves). The evil example of freed blacks in a colony
so large and important as San Domingo horrified and
alarmed the Jamaica planters, and they were all in
favour of retaining our hold on the island. But
Maitland's orders were to retire.

When we say * Maitland's orders,' we are speaking
loosely. In point of fact Maitland had no orders,
except to obey Nesbitt, who never arrived. Mr Pitt
was nervously anxious to put an end to the intolerable
drain on our resources that was caused by the con-
tinued occupation of San Domingo. So Nesbitt was
hurried off in the Swan sloop-of-war from Portsmouth,
while Maitland followed with the staff in the packet
from Falmouth. Nesbitt fell sick at Madeira, and
never reached his destination. Thus to the diffi-
culties naturally attending the state of chaos in
which San Domingo then weltered, there was super-
added the unique difficulty that nobody in authority
had any instructions. The officer in command was
General Whyte, who was impatiently waiting to be
replaced by Nesbitt, and had no intention of burning
his fingers over the business. To him Maitland
intimated that he knew what Nesbitt's instructions
were, but that he had been told them in confidence,

30 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

and had no authority to communicate them. Whyte,
irritated perhaps, issued some orders to Maitland, who
replied that he would not be responsible for the results
if they were carried out, but that if the orders were
repeated he would obey them. Whyte rejoined by
inquiring, in effect, whether he commanded in San
Domingo, or not ?

Maitland, with unruffled politeness, admitted Whyte's
authority, but gently urged that by Whyte's own
showing and desire that authority was of a fleet-
ing character. He made a further allusion to the
mysterious instructions, and Whyte thereupon scorn-
fully inquired whether (although he might not be
honoured by hearing the decision of the Cabinet)
Maitland would feel justified at taking over the
command of the island from him ? This was pre-
cisely what Maitland hoped would happen. He joy-
fully accepted Whyte's offer ; and the General, only
too thankful to be quit of the disagreeable business,
sailed for England and left Maitland to evolve order
out of chaos, since that was to his taste. The man
was exactly suited to the work. To overcome diffi-
culties, to unravel tangled skeins, was as the breath
of life to Maitland. The slow and orderly procedure
of a settled administration had no charms for him ;
in fact, it exasperated him, and whenever, in his
various charges, public affairs, owing to Maitland's
exertions, began to assume a settled aspect, Maitland
himself would fall to quarrelling out of sheer ennui.

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 31

The island of San Domingo breaks towards the
west into two peninsulas or horns, the one pointing
toward Cuba, the other toward Jamaica. At the tip
of the northern horn is Cape Mole St Nicholas ; the
southern horn terminates near the town and district of
Jeremie. At the apex of the irregular triangle, and
far in the body of the island, is Port au Prince. The
entire coast line of this deep indenture was held by
the English ; and the instructions of the Cabinet were
definite as to the evacuation of all of it except the
points of vantage at the extremities of the two horns.
These might be retained for the defence of Jamaica,
at any rate for the present ; the rest was to be
abandoned, and the whole cost of our occupation to
be brought down from ^700,000 per annum to, at
most, j^ 300,000. The expenses of the evacuation
were not to exceed ^^ 100,000.

To give any hint of these instructions would
have been to precipitate a stampede, to bring about
massacres and retaliation which would have loaded us
with infamy and entailed a vast destruction of property.
Nevertheless, the instructions had to be carried out,
and carried out forthwith. Hesitation could only
result in our being simply expelled, and that speedily.
We had to choose, Maitland wrote, between a dis-
graceful surrender and a timely evacuation ; and with-
out some lull in the tempest of political hates and
fears that distracted the island, even an evacuation
became daily more and more of an impossibility.

32 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

It was a situation where any man might be excused
for losing his head ; but Maitknd never wavered for
an hour. To steady public opinion he issued a pro-
clamation stoutly denying the ill-conditioned rumours
that we were about to retire and desert our friends.
This may have been unprincipled, but it was eminently
humane. Moreover, he wove in a patch of truth
when he said that we should not desert our friends.

Ever since the day he landed he had been studying
the island politics, and he had now mastered them.
The whites were all on our side, for they had no one
else to look to. But they were as clamorous as they
were powerless, and were continually reinforced by
immigrants from England, who had been emigrants
from France or San Domingo, and who all needed
employment. So Maitland had admirals and generals
serving under him as second lieutenants — which he
found very embarrassing : but * the climate comes to
our help, and provides for most of them,' he added with
ghastly composure. The utmost that we could do
with the whites was to make them safe from their
foes ; to see that they were not massacred. For this
we should, of course, get more curses than thanks, but
that could not be helped.

The temper in which he set about this, the most
delicate part of his task, was well set forth by Maitland
himself as early as October 1797, when at Waltham-
stow, he first heard of his appointment, and learnt
what his duties would be.

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 33

* Great forbearance,' he wrote, ' must be shown
towards the people during the evacuation. Nothing
can be got by teasing and fretting a set of men who
will deem themselves unfortunate, with a supercilious-
ness of manner and a hauteur of demeanour at all
times unpleasant, but which must be peculiarly ab-
horrent to Frenchmen in their situation.'

This praiseworthy frame of mind is not at all in
consonance with the accepted view of Maitland's
manner and behaviour ; but the plain truth is, that as
success followed success, and the Maitland of San
Domingo grew into the King Tom of Corfu, the
cynicism of his nature, completely under control or
perhaps not yet developed in his earlier years, prompted
him to outbursts of scorn and temper that he never
would have allowed himself while his reputation was
still to make.

The proof that his written sentiments were not
merely pious opinions is to be found in what he
achieved at the period of the evacuation. He pre-
vented a stampede, and thus saved many lives and a
vast amount of property. He not only prevented the
French from losing faith in our intentions (which
they would have been perfectly justified in doing),
but, astounding though it may appear, he gave them
confidence in the order of things that he managed
to establish and leave behind him when he retired.
The very men who, at the mere rumour of our
retirement, were ready to denounce us as assassins

c

34 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

for leaving them to the mercy of Toussaint, did
not hesitate, when the convention w^as concluded to
return to the land they had prepared to abandon,
and to dwell under Toussaint's government.

Having, by the proclamation before alluded to,
somewhat calmed the public mind, Maitland sent an
emissary to visit Toussaint in his camp. He selected
the negro as the person to negotiate with for these
reasons. Setting aside the whites, there were three
parties in the island — the French, the mulattos and
the blacks. Maitland had landed at Cape Mole
St Nicholas on the nth of March 1798. On the
loth of April, Hedouville landed from France with
full power from the Directory to settle the affairs of
the island and bring San Domingo back under French
control. So long as we could withdraw our troops
without bloodshed, it was a matter of indifference to
Maitland who ruled in the island ; and as the French
plenipotentiary was, at any rate, a properly constituted
diplomatic officer with whom it was possible to enter
into binding undertakings, many a man would have
been tempted to open negotiations with him. But
Maitland always looked to where the real power
resided ; and his opinion of Hedouville was that,
although he was called a plenipotentiary, he was in
reality only a state prisoner of Toussaint's. 'If he
is ever to regain any authority for France,' he wrote,
*he will have to fight his way through seas of blood.'
This is a terribly accurate prophecy of the French

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 35

expedition of 1803, which cost the life of General
Leclerc, Buonaparte's brother-in-law, and 6000 French-
men ; to say nothing of the losses of the natives.

Maitland, therefore, paid no attention to Hedouville.
There remained Rigaud the mulatto, and Toussaint
L'Ouverture. Rigaud's following was comparatively
small, but he was himself a man of great energy and
resource, and a much more bitter enemy of England
than Toussaint. It would perhaps be more accurate
to say that he was more ardently devoted to the cause
of France ; for he had been outlawed by the Republic,
and hoped to secure the removal of the ban by show-
ing extra zeal in opposing the English. Clearly, there
was nothing to be done with Rigaud.

Toussaint L'Ouverture was a savage, but a savage
of a high type. He was a man with the governing
instinct, capable of compromise, and even preferring
it to harsh measures. There was much said about
his cruelties ; and no doubt there is a vast difference
between war as waged by a penniless, ignorant, full-
blooded negro, founding an empire by means of a
revolution, and a modern general commanding a
corps d^armee of Europeans, and carefully watched
by representatives of leading London newspapers.
But if we remember that when once his power
was founded he more than doubled his influence by
the mildness of his rule, we need not be too curious
about some incidents of the battlefield. Maitland
was not there to enter into the question of Toussaint's

36 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

humanity or inhumanity. His business was to get
the English out of San Domingo without a disaster
if possible, and he addressed himself to Toussaint
L'Ouverture in such language as that remarkable
savage might be expected to understand.

The negotiations were not opened until after
some fighting had taken place ; it was hardly to be
expected that they should be. Scarcely a fortnight
after Maitland landed, on the 27th of March, a
force of 6000 negroes under Toussaint himself
attacked the British force under De Peystre, and
were repulsed with the loss of nearly 500 men.
The next day De Peystre followed up his victory
and inflicted the loss of 200 more. The English
lost 7 officers and 80 men killed and wounded, a
loss which they could aflFord much less easily than
the negro chief. Disease and death and the impos-
sibility of recruiting made our ultimate defeat a
certainty ; especially as numerous desertions to the
enemy were taking place from our coloured regi-
ments. This determined attempt on the part of
Toussaint to expel us by force was supplemented
by a separate attack on the same date on Count
O'Gorman at Croix de Bouquets, an outpost a few
miles north-east of Port au Prince. This attack
also failed.

It was a good thing for the English that Toussaint
was a little too eager. The wholesome impression of
these two beatings made him more amenable to terms.

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 37

His ambition, of course, extended to the dominion of
the whole island, and it would be a great step towards
that end if he could only get rid of the English. The
opportunity of doing so peaceably was now offered to
him by Maitland. Without troubHng his savage foe
with complicated conditions, the English general, by
word of mouth of a confidential officer under a flag
of truce, set forth the following terms : Either the
English retire after blowing up the fortifications
and destroying the private property of the citizens
who will leave San Domingo with them, or, if the
negro chief choose to come to terms and grant
security to life and property, the English will leave
the forts and all the private estates untouched. The
advantage of accepting and observing these terms will
be mutual ; the English will gain by being enabled
to embark without the fear of attack, and Toussaint
will enjoy the immeasurable increase to his reputation
that will spring from it becoming known that he can
keep an agreement, and that white citizens are con-
tented to dwell under his government.

These terms were accepted on the 30th of April
1798, a little more than seven weeks after Maitland
landed ; and the immediate effect of them was that
many inhabitants of Port au Prince and the neighbour-
hood who had already embarked returned to shore
and took up their residence under the new govern-
ment. Ten planters only preferred to sail with Mait-
land. At noon on the 7th of May he evacuated

38 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

L'Arcahaye ; at two in the morning of the 8th he
evacuated Port au Prince. St Marc had been evacu-
ated three days earlier.

So far, then, the first part of his enterprise had
gone well. From chaos he had evolved something
like order j in the place of universal panic there was
general confidence. He had rightly calculated that
Toussaint was possessed of suflicient intelligence to
appreciate the advantage of white subjects : the negro
behaved very well, and the whites were gratified at
not having to face poverty as well as expatriation.
* I shall be contented,' wrote Maitland, ' if Govern-
ment think as well of what I have done as the
French who have decided to remain.'

But the wear and tear had been frightful, and
Maitland was very ill. He laboured all day, and far
into the night. Upon his shoulders alone rested the
responsibility of every step that was taken, the most
trifling as well as the most important, and all this
time he was acting solely in the spirit of orders given
to another man ; orders which had been communi-
cated to him in confidence only, which might have
been revoked for all he knew, which might be at
the bottom of the sea, or in the hands of the French,
or which Nesbitt, when he arrived, might interpret
quite differently from himself.

Those orders were definite as regarded that part of
them already carried out ; but discretion was allowed
in respect of the rest of them. There was no doubt

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 39

about the propriety of evacuating Port au Prince, but
the tips of the two horns of Hayti — Cape Mole St
Nicholas and Jeremie — * might be * retained, if neces-
sary, for the protection of Jamaica. At Port au
Prince the difficulty had been to deal in a satisfactory
manner with Toussaint L'Ouverture ; the danger had
been that the English and the French whites might
all have been killed in battle, or — if Toussaint pro-
longed the negotiations — killed by fever. In his new
position there was no more fear from the natives.
Toussaint had no fleet, and he could only reach us
overland by long marches that would have wasted
his forces in a most unprofitable manner. Besides,
he had his hands full with Rigaud and La Plume,
the Mulatto leaders.

The difficulty of the new situation lay in the two
words 'might be.' The questions Maitland had to
answer were : Were the positions necessary in point
of fact ? Did Jamaica think them necessary ? Did
Maitland himself think them necessary ? Would the
Ministry be likely to agree with him if he decided
that they were ? Anxious, most anxious questions ;
and the only counsellors whom Maitland could call
to his aid were Dundas, the Secretary of State, who
was six weeks off by post, and who could not make
up his own mind, and Balcarres, the Governor of
Jamaica, who (whatever his private opinions might
be) was the official representative of the West
Indian interest.

40 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

Heavy indeed was the task that Maitland pondered
as he sailed for Cape Mole St Nicholas with 4800
emigrants from Port au Prince, whites and slaves, who
followed the British flag. The first news that met
him was that everything was going wrong at Jeremie.
' It all comes,' he wrote angrily, ' of Spencer stuffing
all his men into one or two places, and leaving no
flying force to keep up communication.' Spencer
was the officer in command, and Maitland determined
to inquire strictly into the failure of his campaign.
' I am much concerned,' he wrote, ^ at the outbreak
of offensive operations ; ... we had better strike a
blow at once, than go on in a state of perpetual petty
warfare, draining our purses and killing our men.'
No doubt : but in a country where there are no
roads, and every thicket is a natural fortress, to strike
a blow at once is what no guerilla leader will give his
foe a chance of doing ; and to keep up petty warfare,
to drain his enemy's purse and kill off his men one
by one is the whole art of war. Maitland was more
indulgent when he had seen the difficulties for him-
self, and he wrote that Spencer had shown great per-
sonal gallantry, and had not done so badly, although
he had been defeated.

Immediately on arriving at Cape Mole St Nicholas
Maitland proclaimed martial law, and abolished the
civil courts of the place. This measure, he said, not
only discouraged litigation, but effected a very material
economy in the expenses of administration. No doubt

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 41

he was right in thinking, too, that the forms of civil
process were not a little out of place in a state of
society such as that obtaining in San Domingo in
May 1798. But although he was severely censured
(as indeed what vigorous officer has not been ?) by
the stay-at-homes, it is remarkable that he only had
need to make one severe example during the course
of his negotiations with Toussaint. By proclamation
dated the 26th of April, the Sieur Peyrade, convicted
of highly seditious conduct, was condemned to be
blown from a gun on the heights of St Robin at five
o'clock in the afternoon. It was some time before
Maitland heard the last of Peyrade's execution ; but
the prompt measure probably saved much bloodshed,
and enabled him to carry out the evacuation without
distressing confusion.

Having, during his brief stay at Cape Mole St
Nicholas, set things in something like order, he sailed
for Jeremie, at the tip of the southern horn of the
island, to set matters right after Spencer's overthrow.
The southern horn thickens considerably towards the
tip. Jeremie is a little to the east, along the north
shore ; still further east, along the south shore, is
Aux Cayes. The extreme north-easterly bulge of
the horn is Cape Dame Marie ; the extreme south-
westerly bulge of the horn is Cape Les Trois, just
north of Tiburon. The capture of Tiburon, long a
favourite plan with the troops, was the object of
Maitland's expedition. The Admiral, Sir Hyde

42 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

Parker, sent him the Tork^ the Torturelle^ the Rattle
and the Drake to help him ; and 1700 colonial
troops were marched overland on the nth of June
to cut ofF Tiburon from Aux Cayes. On the 15th,
Maitland himself arrived by sea at Les Anglais, a bay
betw^een Tiburon and Aux Cayes, and duly met his
colonial troops. But beyond hailing each other they
could effect nothing ; for the surf would not allow
Maitland's men to land. He lost some men in trying,
and then gave up the attempt, resting satisfied with
having frightened Rigaud and captured five guns.
It was something, too, to have extricated his colonial
troops from what had now become a very perilous
situation. This was the only incident of the evacua-
tion that fell short of complete success.

By the 6th of July he was back again at Cape
Mole St Nicholas, and was able to report the result of
his measures to compensate the emigrants from Port au
Prince. Colonel Grant had been appointed President
of the Board for this purpose, and had received the
following instructions. The well-to-do were not to
be compensated at all. Any person claiming compen-
sation on the ground of services rendered to Govern-
ment was to establish his claim in the clearest manner.
The very poor might receive a compassionate allow-
ance. 'I will be just if I can,' Maitland wrote, 'but
I will by no means be generous.' Possibly with this
end in view he effected something less than justice ;
but he certainly attained his grand object of conducting

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 43

the evacuation economically. The outside limit of ex-
penditure permitted him on this head was ;£" 100,000 ;
his actual outlay was a trifle under one-half of this
sum, being a little short of ^^50,000. He might well
congratulate himself on such a result.

He now addressed himself to the most serious pro-
blem of the relations of Hayti to Jamaica. Already
while at Jeremie he had communicated with Earl
Balcarres. In writing to the Governor of Jamaica he
presumed that a copy of Nesbitt's instructions had
been forwarded to him ; but expressed his own fear
that Nesbitt might be at the bottom of the sea.
Returning to the instructions, however, he reminded
Lord Balcarres that under them the Governor of
Jamaica was to decide whether Maitland should retire
or hold on. It was important to decide, because
matters were growing critical. How critical they
were he now proceeded to detail to Dundas. * The
British force,' he said, ' may now be truly said to be in
a galloping consumption. Since May we have lost
200 men by disease. Our cavalry is perfectly useless
for campaigning in a country like this, and our
effective force will soon be under 500 men. Feed-
ing on salt food in the tropics is not the way to
keep troops healthy, and we are excessively short of
officers. With such a force as this we can do nothing,
of course, and the enemy grows bolder as he perceives
our weakness.' Undoubtedly, he wrote, Jamaica
would be much benefited by the presence of English

44 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

troops at Cape Mole St Nicholas and Jeremie ; but
it simply cannot be done under half a million a year.
This sum was midway between the former excessive
outlay of over ^700,000, and the sum of ^^ 300,000
which Mr Pitt thought should be sufficient for the
effective occupation of the island.

This despatch is dated the 6th of July 1798, and on
the 22d of August, Dundas wrote to Knox, Mait-
land's destined successor, naming this exact sum as
the amount the Ministry was prepared to spend on
San Domingo for the protection of Jamaica. With
a quick passage the letters might have crossed, but
the evacuation had been completed long before Knox
had a chance to act on his instructions.

The reference to Balcarres did not bring Maitland
much comfort. Balcarres had not seen Nesbitt's
instructions ; and as he gathered that Maitland him-
self had no copy of them, he declined all responsibility
in advising him as to the evacuation. He wrote,
however, in a friendly spirit, expressed himself as much
obliged to Maitland for his report, and in spite of his
refusal to enter into the question of the evacuation,
he wrote at great length on the subject, although
somewhat discursively. Personally, he said, he looked
on Jeremie as an outpost of Jamaica ; for Jamaica lies
open through Jeremie to the attacks of San Domingo,
and (which is much worse) to the propagation of the
dangerous opinions which are rife in that island.
Banditti could land with fatal ease from either Cuba

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 45

or San Domingo, and then the defence of Jamaica
would become a most serious matter. The white
troops could not campaign in the lowlands ; they
would have to be withdrawn from the coast, and the
total force necessary for the defence of the island
would be at least 8800 men. However, taking Mait-
land's view that Toussaint was the destined winner in
San Domingo, there was a plan that had elements of
success in it. This was to arm the Jamaica negroes,
make common cause with Toussaint, subdue the
mulattos, expel the French, and bind San Domingo
and Jamaica together. Unfortunately the Jamaica
planters had not the nerve for so large a scheme, and
they were alarmed at the mere suggestion of arming
the blacks. On the whole, perhaps, Maitland had
better evacuate Jeremie.

There was not much backbone in this advice.
Lord Balcarres's letter was really an intelligent and
conversational essay on the conditions of the problem
rather than a piece of counsel. Nothing could be
more friendly than his style ; but the matter was so
pleasantly impartial, so much more the deliverance of
a disinterested spectator than of one who (if what
he said was true) might at any hour find himself
fighting for his life, that Maitland might well have
shown some disappointment. But he did not do so.
Throughout his official career Maitland was always
the strong man supporting the weak, the man of
resource coming to the aid of the helpless, and here,

46 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

as everywhere else, it was only on Thomas Maitland
that Thomas Maitland could rely.

However, he was consoled by a letter from Dundas
which reached him a few days later. The Secretary
was carried away altogether by Maitland's performance.
He overflowed with expressions of gratitude and relief.
The * unexampled situation ' in which Maitland found
himself owing to Nesbitt's illness was one in which
he had acted with the Secretary's perfect approbation.
He conveyed the * warmest acknowledgments ' of the
Cabinet for the arrangements relative to the evacuation.
The agreement with Toussaint L'Ouverture was not
only judicious in itself, but liberally conceived, careful
of the interests at stake, and generously carried out.
The reduction of the expenditure was very satisfactory.
The constitution of the Emigrants' Board was perfectly
proper ; and Maitland had borne himself throughout
his arduous services with humanity and dignity.

This was the kind of letter that Maitland liked to
receive : he had none of the Duke of Wellington's
icy indifference to other men's opinions. He knew
that he did better than other men, and liked to know
that his superiors knew it. Men said that he was
vain ; perhaps : he had something to be vain of.
They said that he liked flattery ; very likely : most
men do, and those most of all who affect to be in-
different to it. But surely, if Dundas's letter be
flattery, what is just acknowledgment ? The plain
truth was that Maitland had done a piece of work

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 47

that nobody but himself could have done. He created
the conditions in which he acted ; he created the very-
opinion on which he played ; and that which he had
rescued by his efforts was nothing less than the lives of
many whites and many more blacks, and the honour
of the British name. Such services are not rendered
every day ; and if Maitland throughout his official
career was constantly receiving letters like that just
summarized, it was not because flattery was necessary
to keep him up to the mark, but because he was
continually rendering services of such magnitude that
only exceptional acknowledgments were appropriate to
them. His work was approved ; but his health was
broken. ' Let me have leave,' he wrote by every
packet. ' I ought not to remain in San Domingo
another day.' ' I may hold out another fortnight.' ' I
am completely knocked up.' * I shall never recover
the shock to my health.' ' The perpetual attacks of
disease incident to a tropical climate wear a man out
beyond belief.' He does not say what disease —
dysentery probably. But what is remarkable about
these moans are that they proceed from a man who is,
at the moment of uttering them, carrying out work
beyond the strength of any men but those of the
toughest fibre — the Grants, the Wellingtons, the
Strathnairns. Throughout his life Maitland always
presented this singular spectacle, that he worked like
a Hercules, and wrote of himself like a valetudinarian
— even a hysterical valetudinarian.

48 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

What remained to do after receiving Dundas's letter
was comparatively easy. There w^ere no enemies
near Cape Mole St Nicholas ; and Jeremie v^^as only
feebly menaced by Rigaud. But Maitland vi^as ex-
tremely anxious to send his San Domingo refugees to
Jamaica. There was, however, a colonial law for-
bidding the importation of French slaves into that
island. If Cape Mole St Nicholas were retained,
Balcarres undertook to secure the admission of one
regiment of Colonials and a few French emigrants,
but if not, he would positively decline to receive any.

By August 1798, however, it had become clear
that without the despatch of a fresh army from
England, this condition could not be fulfilled. Sir
Hyde Parker was vehemently opposed to the evacua-
tion, as of course were all the Jamaica planters. But
Maitland's reasoning was unanswerable. The place,
he wrote, is only strong because it is difficult of
approach by water. By land it is weak, in spite of its
five blockhouses. If we remain here till the enemy
close round us, we shall have just as much trouble to
get out of Cape Mole St Nicholas as we had to get
out of Port au Prince. So, as Balcarres could do
nothing for him, he disbanded the Colonials and sent
them back to where they were levied. Jeremie was
evacuated on the 20th of August, Cayemite on the
24th, and Les Trois on the 27 th ; in each case the
withdrawal of the British took place with the greatest
order and tranquillity. Maitland sailed on the 31st,

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 49

and the evacuation of the Mole was completed by-
Colonel Spencer on the 2d of October.

In his last letter from San Domingo, written to
Huskisson, Maitland expressed his anxiety as to the
views of the Ministry, and the meeting with them to
which he had to look forward. * For that meeting,'
he wrote, * I am not a little solicitous, as I have a
great deal to answer for if I have been wrong, and
if I have been right, I shall at least have it to say I
have effected my object more fortunately and at less
expense than any man previously could possibly
have imagined.'

He need not have been anxious : from the moment
after he landed at Falmouth from San Domingo, he
was a marked man. He was immediately employed
on a mission even more trying than that to San
Domingo, inasmuch as it was from the outset hope-
less. In San Domingo he had to face stupendous
difficulties ; but in his negotiations in the United
States he had to face impossibilities : from the outset
he was set to weave ropes of sand.

CHAPTER IV

THE UNITED STATES — BELLEISLE THE BOARD OF

CONTROL THE PRIVY COUNCIL — ESTIMATE OF

MAITLAND AS A SOLDIER AND AS A STATES-
MAN

In his agreement with Toussaint L*Ouverture, Mait-
land had (in addition to the articles of the armistice)
arranged the terms on which commerce was to be
carried on. Port au Prince was to be the only open
port of the island, and only those vessels were to be
allowed to ply that were furnished with passports.
This did not aiFect Toussaint, because he had no
ships ; and it did offer a certain measure of protection
to British trade, because it empowered our cruisers
to seize the numerous if diminutive privateers of
San Domingo. These boats, though dignified by the
name of pirate-ships, were, in reality, too small to
eflPect much damage : but they could cause a good
deal of annoyance to trade, and the passport clause
was a useful one from every point of view.

We had reckoned, however, without the govern-
ment of the United States. At first Mr Rufus King,

50

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 51

who represented the States in London, was disposed to
view the growth of English influence in San Domingo
favourably. 'The French,' he wrote to Dundas in
December 1798, 'prey on our commerce just as if we
were at war with them, and San Domingo is a frequent
and convenient port of call.' That being the case, one
would have supposed that in order to secure the advan-
tage of an ocean-highway patrolled by an eflfiicient
fleet, he would have been prepared to submit to some
restrictions on trade as a reasonable condition of im-
proved ease in traflic. But one of these restrictions —
that relating to the import of provisions — he looked on
as damaging to American trade, and accordingly he
moved the Secretary of State to revise Maitland's con-
vention in a direction more favourable to American
interests.

The Secretary at once acceded, and turned to
Maitland as the man best fitted to conduct the fresh
negotiations. There were elements of success in the
mission. The chief source of wealth in the Southern
States, as well as in our own West Indian colonies,
was, of course, the cultivation carried on by slave
labour. The Americans, therefore, were just as much
menaced as ourselves by the existence of a free black
republic so near to their own coasts. Our interests
in trade did not clash ; the Americans supplying grain
and little else, while the English supplied manufactured
goods and little else. The first plan suggested was,
accordingly, that a close company should be formed

52 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

on that basis, with a joint undertaking on the part of
the two governments to forbid the importation of
arms. This, however, was construed as an infringe-
ment of the constitution of the United States. Other
excuses less sound were urged from time to time, as
we shall see, in order to prevent a solution of the San
Domingo question ; but before we accompany Mait-
land to Philadelphia, we shall do well to study another
side to Toussaint L'Ouverture's character, the side that
came most prominently forward in the course of these
negotiations. Toussaint just fell short of being a
great figure in history. At this period, the zenith of
his power, when France was trying in vain to coerce
him, and while England and the United States were
bidding for his favour, he still retained the quaint
forms of Republican correspondence ; he still headed
his proclamations —

Liberie Egalite

an 8' de la Republique Franfaise

une et indivisible
le 11 pluviose^ or whatever the
date might be. This, perhaps, was from a diplomatic
reluctance to break altogether with France. But it
seems more probable that it was from ignorance of
any other calendar. He had a superstitious respect
for anything in print, and Maitland often found
Toussaint's mind occupied with productions like the
following — ^La sceleratesse du machiavellisme brittanique

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 53

s'est eleve a un si haut degre de demence et d^atrocite
quelle ne saurait etre comparee qua la folk audace des
geants de la fable revokes contre Jupiter et les Dieux
d'Olympe^ ' Le Gouvernement anglais .... sest
charge de tons les crimes de Pespece humaine a dater du
jour desastreux oii Georges trois a pris le bandeau royaU

* Cest cet imbecile monarque^ ce sont ces detestabks
ministreSy^ . . . etc., etc.

Toussaint took this kind of composition as seriously
as the London Gazette. They were both in print ;
and any attempt to draw a distinction between them
only served to strengthen the impression produced on
his mind by the French publication. To make a
simple agreement of a few clauses with a man like
this is possible, although difficult, but to make him
understand the full meaning of a somewhat compli-
cated treaty, and rightly to grasp the bearing on the
future of each provision of it, is an impossibility.

There remained the difficulties in the United States,
difficulties which met Maitland on his landing, and
which were never surmounted. It was with some
diffidence that he accepted the mission, for he was, he
said, quite ignorant of diplomatic business. He stipu-
lated for a frigate for the round trip — Madeira,
Philadelphia, San Domingo, Jamaica and home. He
asked to be accompanied by Grant, formerly chairman
of the Emigrants' Board at Cape Mole St Nicholas,
and destined to be our Resident Consul at Port au

54 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

Prince under the regulations that Maitland was about
to establish ; by Nightingall as secretary, and (oddly
enough) by a physician, Dr Wright. His conditions
were at once accepted ; and on his complaining of the
Dana'e\ the ship first placed at his disposal, it was
changed for the Camilla.

Travelling in this considerable state he reached
Madeira on the 24th of February 1799. From this
island he wrote a long despatch on the state of affairs
there which seems to have made an impression. The
French, he said, have now made peace with the
Emperor ; their next victim will certainly be Spain
or Portugal. In that event, why should not England
take Madeira ? Very large sums of English capital
were embarked in the wine trade of the island ; and
as the neighbouring island of TenerifFe was neither
more nor less than a rendezvous, or rather a home, of
pirates (for the privateers were all owned by the
resident inhabitants), a large squadron would soon be
necessary to keep guard over our wine trade. Since
they must be there, v^hy should they not (in the event
of the island becoming French by the conquest of
Portugal) make good use of their time ? The islands,
as they were when Maitland wrote, were perfectly
defenceless, and the first comer who took the place
and fortified it would be able to hold it against all
assailants with ease.

This was actually done on the 23d of June 1801,
or just two years after Maitland wrote, when the

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 55

island was occupied by England in consequence of the
article in the Treaty of Badajoz, by which Portugal
agreed with France to exclude British shipping from
Madeira and her other ports.

Maitland arrived at Philadelphia on the 2d of
April 1799; interviewed Robert Liston, our minister
to the States, and immediately reported to Dundas
that there were very grave fears of the failure of his
mission. The mission, in effect, included coming to
terms with Balcarres, Toussaint and the government
of the United States. Balcarres, no doubt, would do all
that he could, although the Colonial Assembly might
be troublesome. We have seen what Toussaint was
like ; he was ignorant and suspicious, but he did really
wish to arrive at some definite understanding with us.
The government of the United States, however, had
no such desire. The only convention that they would
ever consent to sign was one where each clause
nullified the other, and the net result was that things
stood as they were at the commencement. This was
heartrending work, but Maitland went throught it
assiduously and conscientiously. He followed the
Secretary to each new position that he took up, went
over the ground again and again, cast and re-cast
the terms of the convention, remaining all the while
conscious that he was only marking time.

To add to the confusion, Toussaint sent to Phila-
delphia an envoy of his own, who was favourably
received, and with whom the States opened direct

56 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

negotiations. * The game is taken totally out of our
hands/ Maitland wrote ; the only chance remaining
being, that while our wishes were altogether neglected,
both Toussaint and the States were reckoning on a
state of peaceful navigation that was secured solely by
the presence of the British navy. So that while we
had ourselves created, and could alone maintain, the
conditions that made negotiations possible, we were
the only parties to the discussion whose wishes were
neglected. A plenipotentiary empowered to urge
this view forcibly might perhaps be listened to ; but
certainly nobody else would be.

In so far as this disobliging attitude had any business
basis, such a basis was to be found in the fact that at
this time American so-called trade was really very
little more than gambling. But slender capital was
embarked in it, and the profits were very large — if the
vessel was not captured. The element of uncertainty
rather attracted the Americans than alarmed them,
and they had no desire to regularize the situation.
But Maitland, though he modestly said that he was
no diplomatist, contrived out of this most unpro-
mising situation to extract a few points on which
England and America could be brought to agree ; and
wrote, with truth, of ' our present happy understand-
ing with America.' The Secretary did in the end
agree that England and the States had interests in
common, viz., to keep San Domingo quiet, and to
keep out the French. As to all the rest, the United

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 5^

States remained unpledged, and Maitland saw that
further negotiations would be a mere waste of time.

He sailed for San Domingo, greatly depressed at the
meagre result of his efforts, and found just that state
of confusion that might have been expected when the
two great powers concerned were obviously incapable
of coming to an understanding. Toussaint continued
to flout the French commissioner ; and the Directory,
in revenge, sent their dispatches to Rigaud. Rigaud,
encouraged by this attitude on the part of the govern-
ment that had once outlawed him, finally broke with
Toussaint, and the island became a scene of bloodshed
and torture from end to end. 'America had much
better have concurred in our proposals,' Maitland
groaned ; and then this would not have happened.
There was just a last possibility that Grant's appoint-
ment as Resident Consul-General at Port au Prince
might develope into the nucleus of some permanent
settlement of the difficulty. But the Directory had
been before us, and had forwarded to Toussaint various
comments of the French press on Grant's appoint-
ment, couched in the kind of language that has been
already quoted. The impression left on Toussaint's
mind was that Grant was a coercive agent of the
wicked English Government, and that to allow him
to enter on his duties would be but a step towards the
destruction of Toussaint's power in favour of the
English. Toussaint refused to see Colonel Grant, but
he continued to allow the American agent to exercise

58 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

his functions, and also in a sort of non-committal
manner kept up relations with the French. Grant
turned to Balcarres, but Balcarres could do nothing,
not even give him advice. The governor had enough,
more than enough, to do to manage the Colonial
Assembly, and thought that perhaps Maitland might
help the consul. Everybody leant on Maitland, but
even Maitland was at the end of his resources. ' We
can no longer maintain the convention,' he wrote ;
in fact, it was non-existent. We were fairly elbowed
out of San Domingo. As for Jamaica, it was in the
wildest confusion. A very small force could have
captured the island, for the Colonial Assembly had
quite lost its head, and there were no forces ready for
defence. ' Of course all the blame will be laid on me,'
wrote Maitland, ' for having evacuated San Domingo ;
but surely if there was anything in what the Jamaica
men complained of, they might have found time in
the last year to have put the island in some sort of
readiness for attack.' All the irritation of the man
of action against the men of words broke out. As
for San Domingo, the scene changed from month to
month ; every turn of power implying so many men
on the other side massacred. Everybody had some
share of influence but the English. The situation
was as unreal as a nightmare, and Maitland sailed
for England beaten and worn out.

He made his way to Cheltenham for August 1799,
and then moved back to London, to Berkeley Square.

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 59

After barely six months' rest he was again employed ;
this time in a purely military capacity. He com-
manded the troops in the expedition to Belleisle in
the summer of 1800. 'After eight years of war,
after a vast destruction of life, after an expenditure
of wealth far exceeding the expenditure of the
American war, of the Seven Years' war, of the war
of the Austrian Succession, and of the war of the
Spanish Succession united, the English army, under
Pitt, was the laughing-stock of all Europe. It could
not boast of one single brilliant exploit. It had never
shown itself on the continent but to be beaten,
chased, forced to re-embark, or forced to capitulate.
To take some sugar island in the West Indies, to
scatter some mob of half-naked Irish peasants, such
were the most splendid victories won by the British
troops under Pitt's auspices.'

There are some sidelights to this depressing picture
which serve to modify its gloom. The vast sums of
money here alluded to as if lavished on the British
army were spent in subsidizing allies on the Continent
of Europe. Outside Europe we captured the entire
Colonial Empire of Holland and a good part of that
of France : achievements that it is hardly fair to
dismiss as the capture ' of some sugar island,' as
Macaulay dismisses them. But in respect of our
performances on the coast-line of Europe, no language
could be too severe.

One of the most ridiculous of all of them was being

6o BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

projected while Maitland was struggling with a hope-
less situation in Philadelphia and San Domingo : this
was the expedition to Belleisle. It was entrusted to
him immediately on his return from San Domingo.
It having been already proven that the civil authorities
were in a complete state of bewilderment, there needed
only this demonstration of the impotence of the army
to fill Maitland's mind with that well-founded con-
tempt for his superiors that runs through his correct
and orderly despatches. As a rule, the only person who
is fit to write the accounts of battles and sieges is a
soldier ; but the Belleisle expedition was such a farce
that even a civilian may attempt the narration of it
without undue temerity.

Belleisle is a considerable islet off the west coast of
France, lying due south of Quiberon and between
L'Orient and the mouth of the Loire. North-east of
Belleisle, between the island and the mainland, lies the
little islet of Houat. The object of occupying Belle-
isle was to give a rallying-point for the disaffected
Royalists of the west. The expedition was a repeti-
tion of that despatched to Toulon six years before :
that expedition against which Maitland himself had
railed from his seat in Parliament.

The only chance of success for such an undertaking
was that it should be carried out with secrecy and
suddenness, and that it should be of overwhelming
force. If we had seized and held Belleisle as Sir
Charles Stuart had seized and held Minorca only

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 6i

eighteen months earlier, there might have been a
chance for the Royalist cause. We were in corre-
spondence with Georges, who was conspiring in the
Bourbon interest, and it was understood that we
were to hoist the white flag, and proclaim Monsieur
as soon as the fortress was reduced.

Presumably the first point to settle was the strength
of the garrison of Belleisle ; but this was left to the
last, and it was not until Maitland was encamped at
Houat that some attempt was made, by interrogating
captured fishers and peasants, to find out the strength
of the enemy. As regarded secrecy, so little was the
expedition kept a secret that we might as well have
published our plans in the London Gazette^ and for-
warded a copy to Paris. As a result, the garrison was
largely reinforced about a fortnight before the close
of our preparations.

Our preparations were conducted with the maximum
of publicity and the minimum of expeditiousness. The
plan finally adopted was, that one regiment from Ports-
mouth and one regiment from Plymouth should form
the English contribution. They were to sail separ-
ately from the Irish regiments, and the whole were
to rendezvous off Brest, but so that Maitland and
the Irishmen were a little ahead. Apparently there
was not sufficient transport available to despatch the
Irish regiments at once ; so the transport vessels,
having landed the first contingent at Houat, were to
return to Ireland and bring out the second contingent.

62 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

By this ingenious arrangement ten clear days' notice
was officially (so to speak) given to the enemy that
some hostile enterprise was on foot on the western
coast of France. But, as we have seen, their extra-
official information was so full that they reinforced
the garrison at their leisure.

As regards the strength of the expeditionary force,
it was fixed at 4000 men, and Sir Edward Pellew pro-
mised to contribute an additional force of 500 marines.
This was pure guess-work, and in point of fact,
the army was much too weak for the work assigned
to it. So far, then, we had made a series of blunders
that would have ruined any campaign. Provided,
however, that the naval blockade was efficient (and
it was thoroughly efficient), there was still a chance
that the army might do something if despatched in
tolerable order. But the equipment of the troops
reminds us of the Duke of Wellington's summing-up
of the Flanders expedition five years before — * It has
always been a marvel to me how any one of us
escaped.'

There was a strong fortress on the island ; but it is
not clear how the commander-in-chief expected it to
be captured, unless he conceived it to be like Jericho
of old, and that the walls would fall down at an
invitation. For there was no battering train where-
with to silence the enemy's guns ; neither were there
any scaling ladders ; neither were there any fascines.
There was not even a light field train in case the

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 63

enemy might by chance show fight in the open.
Maitland asked for a couple of hundred dragoons for
reconnoitring purposes ; and dwelt on the fact that
there was not a man with the army who knew the
island, and that without a reconnaissance now and
then he might get into difficulties. But it seems
that there was no precedent for the employment of
cavalry on such an expedition ; and Maitland was
given to understand that his request was irregular,
and had given offence.

Not only was Maitland expected to reduce a strong
fortress without scaling ladders or a battering train,
but he was evidently expected to get through his work
in the course of an afternoon. 'The Queen's regi-
ment, 450 strong,' he reported, * has come out without
a single tent, canteen or camp kettle.' Presumably
they were to use the enemy's quarters and utensils ;
but Maitland's mind did not run at this heroic
pace, and he added simply, * which renders them
perfectly unfit for service.'

With this burlesque army, Maitland sailed from the
Cove of Cork on the i8th of May 1800. He made
Brest on the 23d, and cruised ofF Ushant for St
Vincent and the Grand Fleet. It was at sea that he
discovered the alarming deficiencies of his army ; and
while communicating with the fleet he also discovered
that, though St Vincent was prepared to 'behave in
the handsomest manner,' there was a serious deficiency
of boats for landing his men. He reached Quiberon

64 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

Bay on the 5th of June, and learnt that Belleisle had
been strongly reinforced by the French. He now
commenced his inquiries into the probable strength of
the enemy, and came across the wildest contradictions.
Sometimes it was stated as low as 4000 men ; some-
times as high as 10,000. Whether this information
was intentionally misleading or not, it had the effect
of making Maitland pause. ' Supposing,' he said,
' that the French are even 5000 strong,' what would
be the use of landing ? It might even be a question
whether we could land at all, as there was still a total
deficiency of flat boats, and a great want of small craft.
But to land even 4000 men in the face of 5000 would
be the height of rashness : 8000 was the very lowest
strength that the invading army ought to be reduced
to. This, he said, was a most painful conclusion to
come to ; but if we were to proceed he must ask
for more men, flat boats, some hospital ships, more
plentiful provisions, coals, spare stores and camp
equipage, as well as scaling ladders, heavy guns and
the small force of dragoons that he had previously
mentioned. And this is the general's despatch when
face to face with his enemy.

On the 14th of June, Colonel (afterwards Sir Miles)
Nightingall arrived in London with this despatch, and
two days later Mr Dundas wrote to Maitland com-
mending him for his judicious behaviour, and adding,
* It is certainly His Majesty's intention to provide
immediately a large corps of troops with a battering

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 65

train and every other requisite sufficient for the
reduction of Belleisle.' One would not gather from
this language that Mr Dundas was addressing the
general supposed to be actually engaged on the siege
of Belleisle. The Secretary went on to say that
affairs in the Mediterranean were critical, that Sir
Ralph Abercromby needed an immediate reinforce-
ment of 4000 men, and that Maitland was, in conse-
quence, to despatch his troops to Minorca immediately
on receipt of the order. This despatch reached Mait-
land at noon on the 23d of June, and by four o'clock
on the succeeding afternoon the troops were gone ;
Maitland alone remaining behind.

In the meantime, however, Maitland had twice
inspected the island of Belleisle, and had decided that
an attack must be made. From his own observation
he was convinced that there could not possibly be
many troops there : because he could not see them.
But is it not a well-known ruse of war to affect weak-
ness in order to draw the enemy on ? However, Mait-
land was eager to make the attempt, and fixed the
night of the 19th of June. Fortunately the sea was
too rough, and the attack was postponed till the night
of the 20th. On the morning of the 20th there came
a confidential aide-de-camp from General Georges,
conveying positive information that the garrison was
5000 strong, and that every man in the island capable
of bearing arms had also been forced into the Re-
publican army. On the 21st of June he wrote to

£

66 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

Huskisson that he supposed Georges must know ; but
that 'the not making the attempt is a source of
bitter mortification.'

After he had despatched his troops to the Medi-
terranean, he wrote to Dundas that he placed his
information at the disposal of the general who would
have the next command ; but he hoped for that com-
mander's sake that the expedition would be kept quiet
until it had started. There would be a difficulty about
this, no doubt ; ' as the appearance and paraphernalia
of a great attack, whatever the risk may be, is a most
captivating dose to your old generals.'

On the 1 8th of June, two days after the despatch
commanding Maitland to send his troops to the
Mediterranean, Dundas wrote to him to keep them
at Houat. Maitland received the despatch on the
26th, two days after the troops had sailed : evidently
Dundas had no idea of the pace at which Maitland
could drive a piece of work through. The reason for
the change of ministerial attitude was the battle of
Marengo. It was clear that nothing considerable
could now be effected in the Mediterranean ; so the
4000 men already at Houat might be used as the
nucleus of the next army of Belleisle ; an army
which Maitland now declared ought not to be less
than 10,000 strong. However, they had sailed, and
the nucleus was reduced to Maitland and a few light
field pieces. Maitland was ordered home early in July
1800. It is not hard to gauge his feelings. He was

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND d-]

a proud, capable, energetic man, and he had been
made the figure-head of an expedition that Macaulay
justly described as the laughing-stock of Europe.

On the 1st of November 1803, Maitland took the
oath as a member of the Board of Control. 'I do
faithfully promise and swear that as a Commissioner
or Member of the Board for the affairs of India I
will give my best advice and assistance for the good
government of the British Possessions in the East
Indies, and in the due administration of the Revenues
of the same according to Law, and will execute the
several powers and trusts reposed in me according to
the best of my skill and judgment without favour or
affection, prejudice or malice to any person whatever.
So help me God.'

Castlereagh, Henry Addington and Hawkesbury
were Maitland's witnesses to the taking of this
oath; upon the subscription of which he was free
to enter on the enjoyment of his salary of ^1500
a year, and the anxious duties of one of the
most complicated pieces of administrative machinery
ever devised by man. His tenure of office was not
very long, for it only lasted from November 1803 till
May 1 804. He had left India as a captain in a line
Regiment ; he was now concerned with its affairs as
one of its rulers. But the chief interest to him must
have been not so much the remarkable contrast
between his own position in 1794 and his position
in 1804, as the contemplation of the cumbrous and

68 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

creaking machinery which somehow, and in spite of
all collisions, sufficed for the regulation of the affairs
of a great empire.

Let us cite as an example the appointment of a
commander-in-chief for Madras, which took place
while Maitland was on the Board. In our days a
single line in the Gazette settles this. In Maitland's
day H.R.H. the Commander-in-Chief wrote to the
President of the Board of Control to the effect that
His Majesty had been pleased to approve of the
appointment. The president thereupon, without
consulting the Board (which was only informed of
his action after it was taken), wrote to the Chairman
of the Court of Directors of the H.E.I.C., and
requested him to move the Court to appoint Sir John
Craddock. Thus the Sovereign's pleasure ultimately,
and in effect, took the form of a simple request to
a commercial body with whom the real authority re-
sided. That request wound its devious way through
three separate channels, brushing aside in its course
the whole of the Board of Control, and markedly
dissociating their authority from that of the chairman.
A Sovereign supplicating his own subjects, a Board
ignored by their own chairman, a commander-in-
chief reduced to a mere ministerial officer, such
were the principal features of this ingenious arrange-
ment. The President of the Board was a Cabinet
Minister, and therefore resigned with the Govern-
ment. Formerly none but Privy Councillors could

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 69

be members ; and as a matter of fact Maitland was
sworn of the Privy Council a month after taking
his seat. But since the Act of 1793 this was no
longer an indispensable qualification.

Yet somehow the arrangement worked, and the
Board of Control was looked on at the time as an
arrangement exceptionally favourable to the despatch
of business and the due control of England's rapidly
growing Eastern Empire. After San Domingo and
Belleisle, nothing could have been much of a surprise
to Maitland. He was a fairly regular attendant at the
Board, and if he learnt nothing else, there he at any
rate learnt with tolerable fulness ^with how little
wisdom the world was governed.'

As the expedition to Belleisle was the last occasion
on which Maitland served as a soldier, it may here be
convenient to review his military career. Maitland
was a military man, but he was no soldier. It is not
that he made mistakes ; for he always did his work
creditably, but his heart was not in the service. He
had seen eight years' service in India, in times of peace
and in times of stress ; and he was not fired by his
experience there. On the contrary, he gladly entered
civil life, and at once made himself a conspicuous
figure. His command in San Domingo was half
military and half civil ; and in the exceptional circum-
stances of the case, Maitland might have employed
either arm without fear of reprimand. He instinct-
ively negotiated rather than appealed to force. When

70 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

active hostilities broke out in Jeremie, he went im-
mediately to the scene of war ; but he never looked
on the Tiburon expedition as anything but a tedious
interruption to what was really of value — his negotia-
tions with Toussaint. If Maitland had been a soldier,
it would have been impossible for him to resist the
temptation of closing with Toussaint. The expedi-
tion to Surinam in 1804, in which his cousin Frederick
Maitland was employed, was typical. It was one of
many undertaken and successfully carried through
about this time, and would certainly have filled the
imagination of a man to whom the army was all in
all. It was such a complete demonstration of the
power of a small force acting with the command of
the sea. If we compare Maitland with a contemporary
of his — John Moore — we see the difference at once
between the born soldier and the merely military man.
Moore had not much wider experience of warfare
than Maitland ; like him, Moore entered Parliament,
and at one time, for want of occupation, became
something very like a treasonable conspirator. Like
Maitland he governed a colony — St Lucia. But
whereas in civil life Moore when not ridiculous was
quite ineffective, every piece of military work that he
did shone with the stamp of genius. Precisely the
opposite was the case with Maitland. He did a great
deal of military work, and did it as well as, and no
better than, a score of his brother officers could have
done. But no sooner did he enter civil life than he

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 71

was a marked man ; as an agitator he was a most
formidable antagonist, as a diplomatist he could evolve
order out of chaos. He failed in San Domingo only
because he was attempting the impossible : he was
endeavouring to do, with notes and civil interviews,
what nothing but a large armed force could have
effected. Even as it was, had the Americans not
played for their own hand, he would have effected
something. At the moment when he commenced the
first piece of work of which England at the present
time enjoys the benefits, Maitland was at his best.
He was not one of those who develope early, for he
was forty-six years of age when he took up his
appointment as Governor of Ceylon. For five-and-
twenty years he had been incessantly employed in
the public service ; and his ripe experience was now
brought to bear on a most difficult task, one which,
it may be safely asserted, nobody but Maitland could
have performed. If we would know, in a sentence,
exactly in what his work consisted, it amounted to
this : to undo as rapidly and as thoroughly as possible
the work of his predecessor.

CHAPTER V

CEYLON — ZEAL AND ENERGY DISASTROUS EFFECTS

ON THE COLONY OF CEYLON OF FREDERICK
north's ACTIVITY IMPENDING RUIN

The Honourable Frederick North (son of the second
Earl of Guilford, and whom he succeeded as fifth Earl
on the death of two elder brothers) was a gentleman
of a tremulous and exacting conscience, with a fine —
even a superfine — taste in the fine arts, an ingratiat-
ing manner, large sympathies and many enthusiasms,
chiefly of the sentimental kind. Prior to assuming
the Governorship of Ceylon, his principal appointment
in public life had been the Chief Secretaryship of
Corsica, in which position he had earned a reputation
for adroitness by his handling of Paoli, and his inter-
view with the Pope. In examining these incidents
of his career, however, it becomes clear that in the
latter of these there was really very little difficulty,
for it was all give on our side and all take on the part
of the Holy See. As regards Paoli, it was not so much
North's discretion as the threatened court-martialling

12

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 73

of Moore that brought Paoli to reason. We must
therefore look on North when he assumed the
governorship as, practically, an untried man.

As a governor, we should expect to find him
leaning much on the permanent officials, earning a
reputation for amiability rather than force. We should
expect him to lead an elegant, and as far as possible, a
splendid existence, perhaps leaving behind him some
valuable monographs on the antiquities of Ceylon.
Nobody could have anticipated that he would develop
into a zealous and energetic officer of the most
pestilent type.

Zeal and energy are such indispensable qualities for
a public official that no man can be said to be properly
equipped for the public service without them. We
have Talleyrand's word for the contrary : and Talley-
rand was a great authority. But he served an im-
patient and irascible master, and conducted the most
delicate business in the world at the time when Europe
was in a most inflammable mood. We therefore have
to justify the phrase * a zealous and energetic officer
of the most pestilent type.' The justification lies
in the fact that the words are not here used in
the dictionary sense, but in the official sense. In the
official sense they are usually employed to describe
any piece of work that makes a show, as distinguished
from that quiet and unobtrusive devotion to duty that
tells in the long run, but makes no show at the time.
A man need not necessarily be himself either zealous

74 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

or energetic in order to show zeal and energy : it
suffices if he makes other people uncomfortable.

As Governor of Ceylon, Frederick North made
a stupendous show, and nearly ruined the colony.
The Ceylon of a century ago was a very different
island from the Ceylon of to-day. The British
possessions there consisted only of a narrow ring of
territory round the coast, the interior of the island
being under the rule of the King of Kandy.
Frederick North was the first British governor
after the island was captured from the Dutch ; and
if the Cingalese had been a warlike people, there is
no doubt that he would have been the last also. His
zeal was all-embracing ; it is the more difficult to
know which of his blunders to mention first. Perhaps
his attempt to alter the fabric of society takes preced-
ence for its curious fatuity and its disastrous results.

The constitution of society throughout the Indian
peninsula is now tolerably familiar to most English-
men from the writings of Sir Henry Maine. It is
strictly feudal, but much more rigid than any
feudal system of Europe, inasmuch as the distinctions
between man and man are enforced by the iron
partitions of caste. The basis of the feudal system
was that the condition of the tenure of power was
the fulfilment of duty. ' Power ' means ' land ; '
< duty ' means ' duty to the State ; ' the * State ' being
an idea inseparable in the East from personal authority.
Thus every village has its head — hereditary ; its ac-

so

;V-

^

i^l-

Trirn-on>,l|pc

Map of Ceylon in 1805.

Note,— The shaded portion roprcsents that part of the island subject to
Great Britain at this date.

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 75

countant — hereditary ; its menial officers — hereditary
also : and all these officials are paid by lands entailed
in their family from generation to generation, and
rented directly from the ruler, whoever he may be —
Mogul, Maratha, Hollander or Briton. Here we
have the lower orders of society, all most jealously
kept distinct. Bloody wars have been fought for
village headships, so highly were they prized. Above
these came a regularly graded aristocracy, all based on
the same system — the possession of land and the ful-
filment of duties (in the higher ranks mostly military
duties) to the State. In peaceful times the duties
of the higher grades of this aristocracy were not
apparent ; and North accepted the higher ranks as
he accepted the nobles of his own land, who also,
at that time, enjoyed a magnificent position without
any apparent responsibility. But what jarred on his
temper was the enjoyment of lands by men calling
themselves village servants. Government was in need
of money, and here were many thousand acres of
land nominally rented from government. With his
head full of ideas obtained from works on political
economy. North prepared a grand stroke of policy ;
he resumed all the lands held for village service, and
advertised them for rental. In the open market, he
had no doubt he would get much higher prices than
those that had previously obtained. But alas ! there
was no open market. It scared and displeased the
Cingalese to see their time-honoured customs thus

']e BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

uprooted. It would have been a sacrilege to bid for
lands so long consecrated to * service.' So they lay-
vacant. With the vi^orst of all obstinacies, the
obstinacy of the over-educated man, North persisted
blindly in his resolve. Difficulties supervened. The
service rendered by these undesirable tenants had not
perhaps been adequate ; but a certain amount of
service had been rendered to government. Nov7 that
the village servants had fled, the w^ork that they
had performed — letter-carrying betw^een village and
village, internal duties in the village itself — remained
undone. Nothing daunted, the Governor imported
gangs of coolies from ' the coast ; ' which meant the
Madras coast. This cost about ;^30,ooo per annum,
and effected nothing. For the coolies well under-
stood and thoroughly respected the feudal system in
which they had themselves been reared. They did
not like the situation, and they shirked their work.
As for the former village servants, they had all fled
to the bush. The upper grades of society watched
nervously to see who would be attacked next. But
North had no attention of attacking anybody : he
was only obstinate and unobservant — perhaps it would
be more polite to say zealous and energetic — and
he turned flightily away from a plan half finished
to another with more elements of profit in it — the
development of the cinnamon trade.

He wrote the most glowing accounts of what he
was going to do with the cinnamon trade. He was

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND -j-j

going to cover the expenses of the administration of
Ceylon, and put a large surplus into the treasury-
out of this trade alone. It will be sufficient to men-
tion here that under the contract entered into with
the East India Company, it was provided that a servant
of the Company should watch the delivery of the
goods on the part of his masters : there was, however,
no similar provision on the part of the Ceylon Govern-
ment. We shall see the result of this later.

There was, next, the matter of the Dutch prisoners.
Many of these, both officers and men, were in Ceylon,
waiting for conveyance home. North had promised
them a convoy of English vessels to Batavia — and
was waiting for the vessels. Meanwhile he was
feeding the Dutch prisoners.

The Governor, with his head full of the profit
reaped by so many English countrysides from such
large works of internal navigation as the Bridgewater
Canal, determined to do for the Cingalese something
of the same kind. But the Cingalese, like most
Orientals, respected the wisdom of their ancestors
more than the wisdom of essays and treatises ; and
North's internal communication works were un-
favourably received. One of them, near Colombo
itself, had the disastrous effect of leaving the capital
of Ceylon almost defenceless to attacks which could
not formerly have been attempted by a prudent
enemy.

To put the crown to his edifice of mismanagement.

78 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

North must needs go to war. The King of Kandy
was not a warlike sovereign, but he held an admirably-
strong position in his capital, and he had two doughty
generals — Jungle and Fever. The intrepid North
ordered his troops to the attack with all the courage
of a man who is not going himself. They were
disastrously defeated with very severe losses, and one
English officer — Major Davie — was left a prisoner in
the King's hands.

When Maitland arrived, therefore, the situation
that he had to face was this : the English were
conquerors in a conquered land, yet their own army
was small and dispirited from recent defeat. The
native allies and troops in our pay were in hardly
disguised mutiny ; desertions . were frequent, and
speculations as to our approaching downfall were
generally rife. This was the natural consequence of
a miserably unsuccessful campaign. The treasury was
empty, and vast leakages in every direction had con-
tinually to be stopped by drawing bills on England.
Land had gone out of cultivation to a dangerous
extent in consequence of the resumption of service
lands. Trade was rapidly falling ofT, and there was
a debt of ^^ 20,000 due to the East India Company
under North's cinnamon contract. The condition
of the civil service will be discussed later : it was
highly unsatisfactory.

Here was a state of affairs hardly distinguishable
from what he had left in San Domingo. But there

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 79

were two important differences. Firstly, whereas in
San Domingo Maitland had, at first, only a delegated
authority for a special purpose, and later no authority
at all, in Ceylon he was the undisputed master.
Secondly, the natives were not warlike. Except,
perhaps, by Raffles in Java, never has finer work
been done for the Colonial Empire of England than
that which was wrought by Thomas Maitland during
the five years of his tenure of office as Governor of
Ceylon.

CHAPTER VI

CEYLON COMMON SENSE MAITLANd's RESTORATIVE

ACTION HE WILL NOT BE GOADED INTO WAR

HE REFORMS THE SERVICES

Earlier in this book, it was stated that Thomas
Maitland began life as a totally uneducated man.
But life had educated him for the work of life most
completely. His work in Ceylon, the repairing of
the damage wrought by his erratic predecessor, is
the most agreeable period of his career. He had
not yet developed that fiercely cynical attitude of
mind that he showed in his later years. Ceylon
was his first considerable and independent appoint-
ment, and Maitland brought to the task his large
experience of public affairs, and his profound know-
ledge of men, applying both in a spirit that was
perfectly admirable.

The work was the more difficult because North
had been a highly popular governor with the
Europeans. To a certain extent he laid himself
out for popularity, and multiplied posts in a way
that was perhaps hardly justifiable. But apart from

80

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 8i

this extravagance, there were excellent reasons why-
North should be popular. He was a perfect gentle-
man, and a most agreeable man ; and if his govern-
ment was little more than a succession of wild
experiments, the damage fell on the natives, and
not on the Europeans.

Maitland landed early in July 1805, and plunged
forthwith into his new duties. It took him six
months only to patrol his charge, to examine to
the bottom every department of public expenditure
and revenue, and to draw up a report in which he
detailed the whole in 123 folios of manuscript, with
57 enclosures : and as the first net result he was able
to report an annual saving of ^300,000. The first
of the measures by which he effected so vast an im-
provement was the restoration of the service tenures.
Considering that Maitland was writing more than
half a century before Sir Henry Maine, it showed
exceptional profundity of observation and originality
of thought that he should write to the Secretary
of State as he did on this subject. We are not, he
said, living in the conditions that obtain at home.
We are back in the Middle Ages. *I think your
lordship will agree with me upon reflection that it
would have been a most strange and unaccountable
measure, supposing it possible when we were in this
state of society, if one of the ancient barons had
pulled out of his pocket Adam Smith, and said, " I
will apply to you vassals principles that you do

82 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

not understand, and that will not properly apply
to your circumstances for another five hundred
years." '

It was not, he argued, as if North's system of
procuring labour in the open market were a success.
There was not a single inhabitant of Ceylon who
would work if he were not compelled to do so.
' There is not an inhabitant in this island that would
not sit down and starve out the year under the shade
of two or three cocoanut trees, the whole of his
property and the whole of his subsistence, rather
than increase his income and his comforts by his
manual labour.'

One very quaint form of tenure he instanced as a
remarkable example of the extent to which the custom
prevailed of rendering service to government. At
Colombo there were 300 or 400 people exempted
from all other service on the tenure of * catching
hares in nets for the governor.'

But we are not to suppose that Maitland was as
brusque in his handling of so grave a matter as North
had been. On the contrary, although it was plain
that the service system was the proper one to pursue,
he would make no general order for fear of reflecting
on North, of whom he always spoke in terms of high
personal regard. He simply encouraged, as excep-
tions, a return to the old system wherever there was
a tendency to do so. The tendency was general, and
the exceptions rapidly became the prevailing system,

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 83

but so that no reflection was cast on * the honour of
His Majesty's service.'

He next, or rather concurrently, turned his attention
to the state of the Civil Service and the condition of
the different offices. One, in particular, he chose to
deal with immediately, because it presented the most
flagrant example of the laxness that had grown up
under North's government. The collector of JafFna-
patam was a protege^ not to say favourite, of North's.
He had been rapidly advanced in the service, and
although not much over twenty years of age, he held
one of the principal collectorates of the island. He
was ignorant of the language, and completely in the
hands of his sheristadar. The result need hardly be
recorded. Justice was sold and government revenues
pocketed by the sheristadar and his nominees. Private
trade was not then definitely prohibited to civil
servants, and the collector traded largely on his own
account through the sheristadar. This he did not
from motives of greed, but from an excusable wish
to do everything that there was to be done. He
was a very bad trader, and the only person enriched
was the sheristadar. The collectorate, of course, was
ruined, and the countryside in dismay. Maitland
felt that the case must be dealt with immediately.
He sent for the collector and remonstrated with him,
but without effect. He sent for him a second time,
and the collector almost told him to mind his own
business. ' I am sorely tempted to make an example

84 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

of him,' Maitland wrote ; and he would have been
perfectly j ustified in doing so, for although Maitland's
knowledge of men told him that the collector was
only a very foolish young gentleman, his proceedings
had all the appearance not only of incapacity, but of
flagrant dishonesty. But nothing would induce the
governor to publicly reprimand a King's officer if he
could by any possibility avoid doing so. It was an
easy course, he wrote, and the only alternative threw
heavy anxiety upon himself; but the alternative
course was that which the governor adopted. He
promoted the collector from JafFnapatam to Colombo.
Here he had him under his own eye ; and he per-
suaded the collector of Colombo to exchange for
JafFnapatam ; how, he does not state, but probably by
his talisman, * The honour of His Majesty's service,
sir!'

Thus appearances were saved. But there remained
the recovery of the balances due to government from
the collector personally and in his official capacity.
These balances the governor was by no means dis-
posed to forego ; and yet their recovery would
necessitate a long and very complicated inquiry. In
the ordinary course of the service this would have
fallen to the new collector ; but Maitland would not
hear of that. It would, to begin with, throw a vast
deal of extra work on him which he had not bargained
for when he consented to the exchange ; and it would
also in great measure undo the good of the exchange.

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 85

So he deprived himself of the services of one of the
ablest civilians in the island — Mr Alexander Wood
— and placed him on special duty for the inquiry.
Thus everybody's sensibilities were spared — at the
expense of heavy labour on the part of the governor.
But Maitland had not done with the peccant collector
yet. He summoned him before Council, and gave
him a last chance. By this time the collector had
begun to understand what crossing the governor
meant. He made his submission, promised to do
better, and was dismissed to his work with a reprimand
— but not a public reprimand. Maitland immediately
interceded for him with the Secretary of State. He
was a very young man, he urged, and quite capable
of doing good work in the future. He almost made
it a personal matter that the young man should be
forgiven, and forgiven he was.

At that time the Ceylon Civil Service was recruited
from youths of the age of fifteen. They served about
twelve years as a rule. Nothing is more certain than
that no Englishman is fit to commence arduous work
in the East before the age of twenty-two. At twenty-
eight and from then for fifteen years onwards he is
at his best. The system prevailing when Maitland
was governor combined every possible disadvantage.
Civilians were useless for the first six years of their
service (if they survived them), and were retired just
when they were at their best. Maitland wrote about
this system with the greatest concern. He always

86 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

took the money point of view as being the safest to
reason from, and from this point of view the system
was simply ruinous. It was only natural, for example,
that the men at the head of the service should look
for the best appointments. Therefore the younger
men were sent to the worse districts. There would
be no harm in this if they were already seasoned.
But, said Maitland, what happens if you send young
gentlemen of fifteen or even of twenty to lonely
districts ? They either (if they are conscientious)
mope and worry over their work, having nobody to
speak to ; or else (and perhaps that is the best for
them in the long run) they get into all sorts of
mischief. The effect on the revenue is the same in
either case. It is no answer to this to say that
they are * gentlemen,' and will rise to responsibility ;
character, he urged, is not a thing cut in marble.
It varies with circumstances, and may be completely
changed by them. It is the same with their physical
frames. A seasoned man of thirty will take no harm
from a little fever ; a boy of eighteen goes down
under it. And then what happens to the revenue ?
We are simply sending out every year a crop of young
gentlemen unfit for the work ; the service is constantly
being recruited with rubbish, and the few who survive
are retired as soon as they are of any use. Following
out this line of reasoning, he appointed a military man
of the rank of major to Batticolo, a district that
formerly paid its way, but that recently under the

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 87

rule of a succession of boys had turned into a desert.
In spite of a direct command, he flatly refused to
appoint boys to any such district in future. We may
follow up this experiment to the end with advantage.
The Secretary disapproved Maitland's appointment,
the military man was withdrawn, and the district
ceased once more to yield revenue.

These measures are typical ; they have been entered
into at some length for the purpose of showing that
Maitland, far from being the gross bully that he is
usually accounted, was in fact a man with an extra-
ordinarily lofty sense of duty, and quite exceptional
tact ; a strong man in the best sense of the word.
There is no more certain sign of a weak judge than
the habit of bullying juniors. There is no more
certain sign of a weak administration than the habit
of finding fault with the lower grades of the service.
It shows (to superficial observers) a habit of watch-
ing over everything, a sort of omniscience, when
the governor concerns himself with the doings of
youngsters, and in particular with their shortcomings.
But nothing superficial commended itself to Maitland.
He knew well enough that the lower ranks of the
service are those that give the most trouble ; that
their attainments must always be inconsiderable, their
faults glaringly obvious. But the ideal that he set
before himself was a service whose honour was to be
most jealously guarded ; and before he would injure
that honour by a public reprimand to a member of

88 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

that service, he would endure any impertinence, any
burden of work and anxiety rather than that the
English should appear to be divided among themselves
in the eyes of the natives. * Our power,' he said,
* rests solely on their belief in our superiority.'

Into the details of the revenue it is hardly possible
to enter here ; but the cinnamon contract, an extra-
ordinary example of ineptitude, requires some notice.
The officer appointed by the East India Company to
supervise the delivery of the cinnamon, in the discharge
of his duty to his employers, selected from the bales
submitted to him only those which contained cinna-
mon not only good in quality, but good in appearance.
As the contract provided for the appointment of no
such officer on the part of the Ceylon Government to
check these objections, quantities of cinnamon were
rejected that were perfectly up to sample. The
storehouses were loaded with the rejected goods,
the island was already 5000 bales in arrears, and
Maitland could do nothing : for, at the first hint of
revising the contract, the Company would of course
call upon him to pay up his arrears. So that all he
could do was to watch the deficit growing, and suggest
that representations should be made by the Secretary
of State to the Board of Directors.

The keep of the Dutch prisoners was a serious
item of expenditure, their presence was a political
danger (for they looked for a revival of the Batavian
Republic), and their removal in British ships promised

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 89

to be a heavy expense. So Maitland sent a flag or
truce to Batavia, which was then in French hands,
and suggested that the prisoners should be sent for.
They were at once fetched away and landed at Java.
Thus, without any outlay except that involved in the
voyage of the sloop of war that carried the flag of
truce from Colombo to Batavia, the governor rid
himself at once of an expense and an anxiety.

The anxiety, though he said little about it, was
very well grounded. Our native troops in Ceylon con-
sisted of some Sepoys who were scarcely effective, and
more than suspected of disaffection, and some Malays,
of whose conduct we can best judge by the following
incident. During the war with Kandy they deserted
to the enemy and joined in the massacre of our troops.
When we retired the Malays marched back to barracks,
which they were allowed to re-enter. They then
presented a demand for their arrears of pay during
the campaign. Seeing that they had been fighting
against us, the impudence of this demand has probably
never been approached. However, it was acceded to
by North's government, and, as Maitland said, we
thus put a premium on treason. To awe these very
dubious mercenaries we only had 1200 European
troops in the whole island, so that to get rid of the
Dutch prisoners was more of a relief than Maitland
cared to admit.

These were some of his initial diflficulties, and
perhaps the most serious of them. The surmounting

90 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

of them, and still more the manner in which they
were surmounted, was of incalculable service to the
governor. After the conclusion of the collector of
JafFnapatam's case, Maitland wrote, ' The other officers
are already beginning to see that there may be such a
thing as the interests of government to be considered.'
That was a great step onwards ; for it was not so much
the actual difficulties of reform that embarrassed
Maitland as the spirit of laxness which pervaded the
public service. After a warm eulogium of North's
personal character, he wrote to Lord Camden, * I
fear that his plans have very generally been formed
upon mere theoretic principles without attending to
local circumstances or religious prejudices, and I am
sure that the execution of those plans has been left
totally to themselves.'

It was in the judicial branch of the service that
the possible improvements were fewest. By strict
supervision the collection of the court fees was en-
forced, and the courts were made to pay their own
way ; but that was all that could be done. ' No
man will more rejoice than I do that the present
unlimited spirit of litigation shall subside into a
feeling of equity and honour of which at present
the inhabitants are totally divested.' Maitland's
grammar was not always very sound, but what he
meant was that he looked forward to a subsidence
of that spirit of litigation which produced, for ex-
ample, the following figures. Between the ist of

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 91

March 1805 ^^^ the 24th of February 1806, the
sitting magistrate of Colombo decided 6812 civil
cases. This implies the monstrous number of at
least 22 civil disputes for every working day of
the year. Betw^een the same dates the criminal
cases numbered only 585, or the small total of
II a week. The whole character of the Cingalese
population is given in the figures : they were not
violent or turbulent, but they were intensely
litigious over small matters, and this temper there
was no hope of changing.

Except in JafFna, where the vagaries of the head
of the district had brought about ^ a scene of pecula-
tion and fraud and iniquity,' the judicial branch of
the service needed comparatively little reformation.

It was the revenue that was Maitland's despair ;
in particular, the survey department. This indis-
pensable adjunct to a well-ordered revenue system
in a settled State was simply a white elephant to
the disordered revenues of Ceylon as we found it.
Without considering that the island could not afford
the annual expenditure of ^25,000 to ^30,000 which
the survey entailed, there remained the very plain and
cogent facts that village service was indispensable to a
survey, and North had abolished village service. The
department had been established in consequence of an
estimate of the probable progress of the island *full
as ludicrous and full as romantic in its lucubrations
as anything that is to be found in the Arabian Nights

92 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

Entertainments.'^ Having evolved an imaginary sur-
plus of j^50,ooo to ^100,000 a year, it was decided
that ^^25,000 or ^30,000 of this could not be * better
thrown away' than on a survey. *I wish to God
they would have let it alone ; ' but on the whole he
was grateful to it, for it enabled him to demonstrate
to His Majesty's Government ' how absurd theoretical
speculations are when not combined with local cir-
cumstances, local feelings and local prejudice.'

Having done all that was for the moment possible
to ameliorate the revenue and judicial branches of
the service — those that would naturally attract Mait-
land first — the governor turned to consider the army
and the Kandy war. There was no regular peace
with Kandy, but Maitland was not anxious to re-
commence hostilities. Kandy, he wrote, ' is infinitely
beneath contempt ; there would be no glory in
winning, and there was no dishonour in remaining
as we were. It is not the Kandians that are formid-
able, but Mr North's opinions on the subject that
have rendered them formidable. The great fault was,
from the commencement, regarding them as a regular
power. Had I so considered them, I might have
gone to war with them every day since I came here.'
The situation was strained, but it gave Maitland the
opening for one of those masterpieces of management
in which he was such an adept. War was what the
King desired ; and war was what the governor would
not have. Firstly, it was expensive ; secondly, it was

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 93

risky ; for our army had been beaten once, and the
Malays were thoroughly untrustworthy. Yet the
King was determined to force on war if possible. He
had a hostage in the person of Major Davie, for whose
restoration we were negotiating. But the King would
not restore him without an embassy ; and an embassy
Maitland was too wary to consent to. It would be
the final recognition of the King as a regular monarch,
and would be merely the prelude to new demands.
To break the shock of the refusal, Maitland corrupted
the High Priest with the present of a large looking-
glass. He also won over the High Steward ; so that
when war was debated in the councils of Kandy, a
peace party suddenly made its appearance. The de-
cision was put ofF from day to day ; and meanwhile
the High Priest and the High Steward enjoyed the
valuable privilege of smuggling letters in to Davie.
Each one of these cost Maitland ^^20 ; but though
a miser in the King's interests, the governor never
hesitated to be lavish if the occasion justified the
expenditure. He even went so far as to offer ^^2000
to anyone who would bring Major Davie away.
' Money is of no consequence in such a case,' he
wrote. But though the bribe was high, the danger
of arousing the King's vengeance was too great, and
nobody volunteered for this perilous service. The
plain fact was that any man who attempted to release
Davie would have to spend the rest of his life outside
the dominion of the King of Kandy ; that is, in effect.

94 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

under British protection ; and there was still great
doubt in the minds of the Cingalese whether British
protection was likely to be permanent. So Davie
lingered in captivity. But the covert correspondence
with him served two purposes : it kept up that un-
fortunate officer's heart, and it cemented our influence
at the court of Kandy. At the expenditure of a few
hundred pounds the peace was kept, the breach of
which would have cost us scores of thousands of
pounds, and more lives than could be estimated.
' War in this climate ! ' wrote Maitland, with a back-
ward glance, perhaps, at the not dissimilar climate of
San Domingo. As for Kandy, the King would always
quarrel with whatever power held the coast ; so that
unless we meant to extinguish him (which we
certainly were not strong enough to attempt), our
only possible course was to ignore the affronts that
he offered us, and to find our consolation in keep-
ing the peace, even if it were rather an ignoble
one.

In evolving order out of chaos, in developing a
balance out of a deficit, the difficulties that Maitland
encountered were too varied and complicated to be
enumerated. A few have been instanced, together
with the expedients adopted by him to meet them.
One source of revenue was the agio on the sale
of Government bills ; and to give some idea of the
complexity of these transactions before the days
when there was a standard rupee, we may take

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 95

this advertisement of the rates of exchange for the
6th of June 1806 : —

On Great Britain ^i Sterling = 9I Rix Dollars.
On Bengal 360 Arcot Rupees = 400 Rix Dollars.
On Madras 100 Star Pagodas = 400 Rix Dollars.
On Bombay 350 Bombay Rupees = 400 Rix Dollars.

When Maitland had been at work little more
than a year, he commenced a masterly review of
the value of Ceylon as a military post. We must
recall the circumstances that led to our retention
of the island. Ceylon was the only portion of the
Dutch Empire (the entire area of which had been
conquered by England) that we retained at the
Peace of Amiens. We made this exception because
the campaigns of SufFren had shown us that we
could not afford to leave so important an outpost
in the hands of so feeble a power as Holland. In
his report to the Secretary of State, Maitland re-
minds the Government of these facts when he is
considering the strength — or rather the weakness
— of Ceylon. * Whether at peace or war,' he
wrote, the whole objects of the French *seem to
me to be limited to two : to conquer India in
England or England in India.' In Maitland's day
it was not every politician who saw the situation
so clearly.

In this scheme of conquest, where is the place of
Ceylon ? It stands at the gate of India, and can

96 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

only be viewed in relation to the continent. When
we say that Ceylon guards India, we mean of
course that the fort and harbour of Trincomalee
do so. Of the general defence of Ceylon he merely
wrote, as of a matter of course, of * the total
neglect that had hitherto been shown to put the
island in a decent, far less a formidable, state of
defence.' Of Trincomalee itself he reported that
its defences stood * exactly where they did in the
year 1781, with this essential difference, however,
that the trifling works then in decent order are
fast mouldering into decay.' Now Trincomalee is
*the real key by the possession of which alone you
can hold the naval superiority of India.' 'So long
as we are supreme at sea it does not matter; but
directly a hostile squadron with four or five thousand
men makes its appearance, we shall lose all that we
have paid so much for during so many years.'

In fact, 'if we are not prepared to fortify Trincomalee
not only adequately but formidably, we may as well
give up Ceylon altogether.'

So much for external defences. As regards the
interior, a good deal would be achieved as soon as
the Secretary of State should sanction his restoration
of the service tenures in the villages. Not much
additional military strength would accrue from this
measure, but the difficulties of transport, of supply
and of internal communication would be minimised.
The actual forces at his disposal were quite inadequate.

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 97

numbering only 1200 Europeans, with a regiment
of Sepoys (who were comparatively harmless), a
regiment of Malays (who had been convicted of
treason), and both of whom might be warranted" to
desert to the enemy at the first reverse suffered by
our arms.

CHAPTER VII

CEYLON THE MUTINY AT VELLORE INTERRUPTION

OF maitland's work by bentinck's ineptitude

MAITLAND RESCUES MADRAS AND LECTURES

THE GOVERNOR-GENERAL

On the south side of Cavendish Square there stands,
looking towards Oxford Street, a heroic statue of a
very handsome, very arrogant and (it must be said)
very dull man. It is that of the second son of the
third Duke of Portland — Lord William Bentinck.

Lord William Bentinck's dulness was perfectly
compatible with lofty intentions and great personal
nobility of character, but it was not to be denied. It
was of the aggressively British type. He always
acted as if he really believed that the British Con-
stitution came down from heaven ; as if it was not
only metaphorically but actually a palladium of
liberties ; and not only of our liberties, but of the
liberties of all other peoples. If facts did not square
with the British Constitution, so much the worse for
the facts.

He passed a public life of many years in making ex-
periments on these lines ; experiments that were often

98

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 99

made with kindly intentions but were (with a single
exception) of disastrous effect. The exception was
the abolition of Sati ; which earned for him an epic of
panegyric, and a statue in Cavendish Square. With
his blunders we need not concern ourselves, except
with the first, which nearly lost us India. In his
capacity as Governor of Madras, while Maitland was
Governor of Ceylon, he ordered the native soldiers to
parade without their caste-marks ; as if that was not
enough, he ordered them to shave in a particular
fashion ; as if that was not enough, he ordered them
to wear a cap of a particular shape resembling a
European head-dress. Short of outraging their private
life and defiling their temples, there was nothing else
that he could do to stir up a bloody rebellion. His
own defence is such an excellent resume of the situa-
tion that we may spare a line for it. He said that
he had signed the orders as he understood them to be
mere matters of form concerning the military depart-
ment only. As if, in the East, matters of form were
not often of vastly greater moment than matters of
fact. As regards the defence that they concerned
the military department only, this demonstrates that
Bentinck had failed to learn his first lesson, viz.,
that religion in the East pervades all departments of
life, and can by no means be set aside at the call of
military expediency.

Of course the inevitable happened. The abomin-
able orders were no sooner published than English

,T*\^of

-..•f<'^

100 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

officers were shot down, a universal massacre seemed
imminent, and the fabric of our dominion trembled
to its foundation. Of course Maitland was sent for.
On the 3d of August 1806, a swift vessel was
despatched to Ceylon for help. Beating against the
south-west monsoon, it took ten days on the voyage.
It reached Maitland at four o'clock in the afternoon
of the 13th, and at six o'clock all the men that he
could spare were already embarked. The orders to
Colonel Buchan were to proceed to Negapatam
without a moment's delay. The men, numbering
400 in all, were in a vessel that, running before the
wind, made their destination in three days. Maitland
wasted no words in sending them, and offered no
comments. He only asked to have them sent back
to him as soon as possible, as Ceylon was now defended
by the navy only. The Governor of Madras in
council overflowed with gratitude, as well he might.
But Maitland preserved a grim silence, receiving and
annotating reports, making all possible inquiries, and
never hesitating all the while to render every assist-
ance in his power to the panic-stricken Government
of Madras, to whom he offered no advice, simply
accepting their report on the situation, and acting
on it with a promptitude and loyalty that could not
be surpassed. Then he sat down ; and, the immediate
danger being past, and most of the facts in his possession,
he wrote : but not to Bentinck, to Minto, the new
Governor-General. Maitland was boiling with rage.

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND loi

Of what use was it that he should be working him-
self to death to set matters straight in Ceylon after
North's vagaries, if another, a more violent and head-
strong North, was to set the continent of India in
a blaze with his folly ? Ceylon was only useful as
an outpost to India, and if Lord William Bentinclc's
conduct was a sample of the course we were about
to pursue there, there would very soon be no such
thing as British India. Tact, tact, tact ; this was
the text of Maitland's daily sermon to the service.
Study life, study men ; above all the men around
you here in the East and as they are. Learn local
manners, local customs, local habits, local religions,
local prejudices. Not till you are at home in all
these can you venture to move, still less to alter
what is around you. But here was a governor who
was prepared to throw the East and all her hoary
traditions and notions into a bonfire, and for what ?
For a question of stocks and shakoes.

As for their measures taken after the mutiny,
Maitland was beside himself with impatience. ' The
Madras Government,' he wrote, 'are giving out
orders, stating what every child and driveller knows
to be false — that they have perfect confidence in their
Sepoy establishment at the very moment they are
sending to me to say that they have none.'

After his first outbursts Maitland settled down into
a detailed examination of the system of Indian ad-
ministration, and of some incidents of the mutiny.

102 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

There had been an attempt to connect the outbreak
with the ambition of Tipu's family, who were living
rather magnificently at Vellore on their allowances
from the British Government of ^30,000 per annum.
Maitland dismissed these rumours without much
attention. Even if there was anything in them, that
is no great discovery. ' It is not in the nature or
feeling of a Mahommedan to hang up his sword and
sit quietly down to cultivate the land.' It is one
of the standing difficulties of Indian government to
deal with this temper. It was not on this head,
but on the feeble and complicated system of Indian
administration that Maitland now addressed Minto.
' It is a system,' he wrote, of * perfect inefficiency and
imbecility.' Every ensign thinks himself a com-
mander-in-chief; every writer talks as if he were
the head of a government. They all write far too
much, spending hours of time and reams of paper
over matters that could easily be settled in an inter-
view of ten minutes. Very different, he writes,
is my government. Here you shall see no piles of
records, and stacks of correspondence and accounts :
there is nothing to be seen in Ceylon but results.

It is not as if all members of the service were
efficient : there are plenty of ' idle, assuming and
indolent coxcombs ' who are pushed into places where
they can do nothing but harm to the service.

The mutiny is not of course owing to these
shortcomings. But if we do not set our house in

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 103

order, there will some day come another mutiny
with which we shall not be able to cope unless our
system is altered. The outbreak at Vellore has been
a terrible warning. Let us not neglect it ; you
cannot quiet mutinies with proclamations announc-
ing that you have full confidence in the Sepoy
establishment.

So wrote Maitland to Minto ; the Governor of
Ceylon to the Governor-General of India. There
was no official connection between the two officers.
They had sat in the same Parliament, and may be
presumed to have been acquainted. But let us for a
moment imagine the reverse situation. Let us suppose
that it was Maitland's system that was being remarked
on, and that Minto was the critic. It is easy enough
to imagine the fury with which he would have received
any criticism, especially one unasked for, especially
one of such vehemence ; above all, a criticism from
an officer who, though not actually a subordinate,
held a post of far inferior importance to his own. It
would have been different if Maitland's communication
had been private or semi-official. Yet, although he
must have known perfectly well, at the time when
he was lecturing the Governor-General on the proper
method of conducting the administration of India,
that he was taking a step that was of very questionable
manners, to say the least of it, he afterwards expressed
his astonishment that any offence should have been
taken at his expression of opinion. Offence was

104 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

taken, dire offence : the sting of Maitland's comments
being, of course, that they were perfectly sound.

We shall best realise the situation if we imagine
the same or similar occurrences to have taken place
during the great mutiny of fifty years later. Surely
in such a time of stress a small, or even a considerable,
breach of official etiquette would have given rise to
very little comment. The Vellore mutiny happened
so long ago that most of us have forgotten the very
name of the place where it originated, and where,
fortunately for India, it was stamped out. But at the
time there is no doubt that it shook our confidence
most seriously. Maitland evidently thought that any
catastrophe might be expected, either in India or in
Ceylon. Within the limits of his own charge, there
were practically no troops to be depended on. To
any man, and especially to so strenuous a worker as
the governor, it is exasperating to lose one's life for
another man's blunder. It was under the conviction
that no less a danger than this stared him in the face
that Maitland wrote. His feelings were intensified by
the genuine zeal that he always showed for the King's
service ; and though right may technically have been
with his enemies, and though the result of this and
some other incidents was to make Maitland one of
the best-hated men of the day, there is no doubt
that his conduct (at this distance of time) looks
admirable. The happy instinct of compromise — the
absence of which has often been the ruin of administra-

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 105

tions more logical than our own — prevailed on this
occasion. No reply was sent to Maitland ; no official
notice was taken of his action. It was allowed to reach
him privately that his language had given offence, and
the matter dropped. Both Bentinck and the com-
mander-in-chief in Madras were recalled from their
posts. Bentinck's family influence, at once territorial
and parliamentary, was far too important for his
blunder to count for much, although it would have
ruined the career of a less influential person. He con-
tinued his public career, the career of a kind-hearted,
energetic man untaught by experience and apparently
unteachable ; and there has gathered around his name
a halo of reverence and admiration.

Before we quit the incident of the mutiny of
Vellore, there are one or two gems from Maitland's
correspondence on the subject that ought to be pre-
served. A week after writing his first despatch, he
wrote again to Minto (28th September 1806). He
repeated his opinions previously expressed; and added
that the measures taken by the Madras Government
were * farcical and unsatisfactory.' It was 'obvious
to every child ' that the palace and the Sepoys were
pulling together, and though that was not the worst
of the business, it was absurd to issue proclamations
denying it. ' The Vellore business,' he concluded,
with an attempt at cheerfulness, was ' a severe
paroxysm of a violent disorder, but it is nothing
but a paroxysm.'

io6 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

The remedies adopted, however, were a miserable
quackery ; the real remedy must be radical. ' The
whole system of India must be considered by His
Majesty's Government. The whole of its military
system completely revised and corrected, a due pro-
portion established between the Europeans and the
Sepoy establishment,' etc. This is fairly strong advice
to a Governor-General of India. But it is very mild
language compared to that which he used privately.
To Sir George Shee he w^rote on the 23d of March
1807, that the Madras Government had cherished the
causes of the mutiny ' by a degree of folly, imbecility
and madness unequalled even in the history of the
Island of Ceylon.' This is no longer advice ; it is
castigation, not to say abuse. If such was the
language that he allowed himself to use in writing,
we may guess what he said in conversation. Here
we may finally quit the story of the mutiny at
Vellore : a miserable episode, in which Maitland bore
himself with admirable courage, loyalty and prompti-
tude. He also succeeded in making a host of enemies
for himself — chiefly those whom he had rescued from
the consequences of their own folly.

CHAPTER VIII

CEYLON INTERNAL ADMINISTRATION QUARREL

WITH THE CHIEF JUSTICE VICTORY OF MAIT-

LAND

The system to which we of Europe have habituated
ourselves of strictly dividing the executive, judicial
and legislative duties of government is a strange
system in the eyes of Easterns. To them it is natural
that the King shall make or alter laws, and shall also
execute them by the hand of servants holding ofEce
at his goodwill. To deprive him definitely of the
power of executing his own laws is already a deroga-
tion of his dignity ; while the intrusion of a judge
on the Sovereign's sphere of action is nothing more
nor less than a challenge to his royal authority. If
not checked immediately, it simply amounts to re-
bellion ; their allegiance is at once divided, and they
await the inevitable appeal to armed force more or
less resignedly, according to their temper.

Nevertheless, there has been no hesitation on our
part to carry out in the East what must always be
the English ideal of a sound system of government.

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io8 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

But it is none the less the part of a loyal judicial
officer to see that the authority of the governor is
unchallenged, so that there can be no room for doubt
as to who is the real head of the government. Especi-
ally was this attitude on the part of the judicial bench
a desirable one in Maitland's day, when we consider
the perilously uncertain state of the society over which
he was called to rule.

Mr Lushington was Chief Justice of Ceylon. He
had a seat in council, which was exceptional for the
Chief Justice ; and the authority of his high position
was thus considerably enhanced. Mr North had dealt
gently with the Europeans ; and though not in very
good odour with the army, he was much considered
by the other English in the colony. He was a very
easy-going man to deal with, and Lushington's con-
sequence rose, as the consequence of a very conse-
quential man will always do, unless his chief is really
a strong administrator. This is a moderate way of
stating the situation. Maitland stated it rather more
vigorously. ' When I came to the island,' he wrote,
' all general authority was annihilated,' and Lushington
was as great a man as the governor. He proposed to
continue his former habits, and frequently called on
Maitland, and gave him advice about the proper method
of conducting the military arrangements of the island.
The new governor, as we have seen, had but little
time to spare for academic debates ; but he was far
too wary to commence his term of office with a

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 109

breach with the Chief Justice. ' Nothing could be
so mischievous in a government like this as any
public difference between the two branches of the
public service.' According to this opinion, so
often expressed by Maitland, and so often enjoined
by him on his own subordinates, when the time
came for him to be heckled himself he bore his
punishment unmoved ; but not without secret re-
sentment.

The earlier part of his term as governor was filled
with anxious work, and Lushington had things his
own way. But gradually the state of public affairs
quieted down ; the Civil Service came into line and
the deficit disappeared, and its place was taken by a
surplus. The native army, if untouched, fell into
a better frame of mind as it saw the steady improve-
ment in British affairs, and the grip that the new
governor had acquired over his subordinates. There
was no more talk of the British Raj coming to
an end ; and Maitland, having broken his unruly
team into something like shape, had leisure to
attend to his own affairs, and prepared himself to
face the Chief Justice if a conflict was to that
officer's mind.

Lushington was no match for Maitland at this
kind of work. He seems to have supposed that
because the governor, a full major-general, patiently
submitted to be lectured on his military duties by a
lawyer, therefore he might be neglected altogether,

no BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

and that any liberty might be taken with him. He
continued, therefore, his habit of laying down the
law on every subject, little guessing what a terrible
antagonist he was challenging. Maitland was silently
waiting until Lushington should take up ground that
was obviously untenable before closing with him.
Many causes of difference arose, but Maitland passed
them by, either because they were not precisely the
opportunity that he desired, or because his hands were
full in other directions. At last Lushington com-
mitted himself ; and before the quarrel was over the
Chief Justice was beaten, and driven not only from
council, but from Ceylon, and the governor's
authority completely rehabilitated.

It was the duty of the Chief Secretary to Govern-
ment to countersign orders by the governor. But
sometimes the governor went on tour, and it might
be inconvenient to take the Chief Secretary away
from headquarters ; or the Chief Secretary might be
sick. In either of these cases, what was to be done ?
Would the signature of the Deputy Secretary suffice ?
This was the question duly submitted to the Chief
Justice for his official opinion. It was the kind of
question that the Chief Justice delighted in. He en-
larged on the separate responsibility of the two officers
at great length ; and finally (on the parallel of the
Sovereign of England) decided that no act of the
governor was valid that was not countersigned by
the Chief Secretary. Maitland protested against this

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND iii

view, partly on the ground of the extreme incon-
venience that would result to the public service if
it were acted on, and partly because of the extra-
vagance of the parallel between a colonial governor
and his Sovereign. Apart from the indecency of
such a parallel (and Maitland expressed himself as
greatly shocked by it), there remained this plain dis-
tinction : that the constitutional maxim of England
was that the King could do no wrong, and it was
therefore necessary that some minister should be
in each case pointed out as the responsible officer.
In a colony the case was totally different. The
governor was responsible in his own department, and
the Secretary in his ; but in countersigning govern-
mental orders the Secretary did not relieve the
governor of any share of his responsibility. His
function was simply that of a witness ; and for that
purpose the Deputy's signature was equally good
with that of his chief. These sober and weighty
reasonings told to a certain extent with Lushing-
ton, and he gave, in full council, a hesitating assent
to them.

A test case soon arose. The governor went on
tour and took the Deputy Secretary with him. He
exercised his prerogative of pardon, and the Deputy
countersigned the order. From the bench of the
High Court the Chief Justice refused to allow the
order for the prisoner's release to be executed. Here
was a challenge thrown down to the governor in

112 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

the face of the whole population of the island. If
the governor might not exercise his prerogative of
mercy w^ithout the permission of the Chief Justice
(and that is the only way in which the natives could
possibly have interpreted the difference between the
two officers), it was clear that the Chief Justice was
the greater man. Maitland took up the challenge,
and reminded Lushington of his opinion expressed in
council that the Deputy's signature sufficed. Lush-
ington discriminated : his opinion in council, he ex-
plained, had been delivered in his capacity as a
Member of Council ; his opinion from the bench
was delivered as Chief Justice. Inasmuch as his
rank as Chief Justice was higher than his rank as a
Member of Council, his opinion delivered in the
higher capacity necessarily overrode the other. It
is hard to say whether he really believed this non-
sense ; but there is no doubt whatever that if his
explanation had been accepted it would have left
the natives in no dubious frame of mind : the
governor would have been reduced in their minds
to a figure-head, and Lushington would have stood
out as the real if secret depository of power.

Maitland had chosen his ground admirably. There
was no dispute as to the propriety of the pardon. It
was the case of a man condemned to one year's
imprisonment for a civil debt ; and as he had a family
depending on him and there were openings for his
work, it was a clear case where an exercise of the

STR THOMAS MAITLAND 113

prerogative of mercy was to the advantage of the
colony. Consequently even those w^ho disliked the
governor, or vi^hose tempers inclined them to the
adoption of Lushington's view of the question, were
compelled to admit that, even supposing right to be on
the side of the Chief Justice, expediency was clearly
on that of the governor. A council was called and
the Chief Justice invited to attend. He declined ;
having, he said, nothing to add. If he supposed that
this would be a checkmate to Maitland, he was greatly
mistaken. An order was immediately issued dispens-
ing with the further attendance of the Chief Justice at
council. It was added that His Excellency had no
use for Mr Lushington in military affairs, that his
opinion would always be of utility in legal matters ; but
that, as he had declined to give it, his conduct could
not be passed over. This return blow was decisive of
the relative importance of the governor and the Chief
Justice. For the public the question was settled ; but
privately the quarrel was only beginning. It com-
menced at fever pitch and did not subside until
Lushington left the island. The two officers assaulted
each other with long reports and memoranda, detailed
examinations of the interviews and even reflections as
the manner in which various interviews were con-
ducted, or remarks made. The dispute went worse
and worse for Lushington ; he lost his temper, and
his style grew more and more peevish and even
abusive. Maitland swelled with importance. His

114 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

language grew grander and grander. Whatever
his private conversation may have been, no one
bore himself, officially, with more stateliness than
Maitland. He was dignity and propriety personified.
Very different was it with Lushington, who was
reduced at last to such a state of mind that the
governor could complain with good show of reason
that he was ' daily and hourly insulted by the Chief
Justice.' There could only be one issue to such a
situation. There was but one Maitland, but the
English Bar could produce a dozen Lushingtons at
a moment's notice. The Chief Justice was con-
soled with an appointment in England, and Maitland
reigned supreme.

It has been necessary to enter into the details of
this long-forgotten quarrel, because it was one of
several in which Maitland engaged, and in conse-
quence of which he came to be denounced as a
quarrelsome man. This is a most damaging reputa-
tion for a public servant, and if it were accurate it
would go far to justify the neglect with which
Maitland's name has been treated. Charles Napier
called him a ' rough old despot.' * Rough ' he was
sometimes ; although, if occasion called for self-
suppression, he could be as patient as Marlborough.
* Old ' he came to be as men counted age in those
days — sixty-five. But if Napier meant 'despot' to
be a term of detraction, he was mistaken in applying
the word to Maitland. For it so happened that his

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 115

whole public service was passed in situations where
nothing could have been achieved if Maitland had not
made himself as near an approach to a despot as the
British Constitution admits of. It would have been
a derogation of his duty to * the King's service * if he
had allowed his authority to be disputed, either in
Ceylon or afterwards in the Mediterranean.

But there is this much truth in the charge that
Maitland was quarrelsome. Undoubtedly he reduced
quarrelling to a fine art. He chose his ground with
infinite patience and discrimination ; and being once
entered on his quarrel he threw his whole soul into
it. He had an admirable gift of exposition, a perfect
mastery of all the arts by which his enemy might be
put in the wrong. He always represented himself
as the embodiment of governmental interest, and
showed up his opponent as the satanic hinderer of
the King's profit. To Maitland a quarrel, when
once determined on, was simply a piece of work to
be turned out as finely as all his other work. It is
no more than the barest justice to say that he avoided
quarrels as far as possible, and that he escaped from
countless disagreeable situations where other officers,
less keenly mindful of the King's service, would have
allowed quarrels to be fastened on them. But it is
also only fair to admit that he thoroughly enjoyed
quarrelling wherever the King's service would admit
of the indulgence. So long as things were going
badly, there was no man more long-sufFeriiig and

ii6 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

patient than Thomas Maitland j but when smooth
water had been reached it was time for those who
had put affronts on him to be wary. Lushington and
one or two other men neglected this precaution.

CHAPTER IX

CEYLON CONCLUSION OF HIS TERM HE IS CALLED

A * pagan' MR WILBERFORCE URGES LORD

CASTLEREAGH TO REBUKE THE GOVERNOR

CASTLEREAGH's COLDNESS THE MUTINY AT

seringapatam mackintoshes estimate of

maitland's work

The sanguine belief that the light of the Gospel
had but to be shed on the darkness of India for all
her people to quit the errors of their ways and enter
the Church was, at this period, very generally pre-
valent in England. Since Maitland's day some pro-
gress has, perhaps, been made. But we begin to
realise, too, how painfully slow must be any general
process of conversion. Hinduism has room in her
large pantheon for all the creeds of Christendom ;
Islam is militant and relentless as ever, though perhaps
for the moment less authoritative. The light, indeed,
has shined ; but the people have not followed in the
way that it points them. Perhaps our Asiatic fellow-
subjects may retort that we have not shown them a
very good example. But however all that may be,
the grand distinction between then and now remains

117

ii8 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

— that in Maitland's day the people of England were
keenly intent on the spread of the Gospel, whereas
now we may be said to be of a somewhat more
deferential mind towards the creeds of the East. We
even, sometimes, remind ourselves that Christianity
itself is, in its origin, one of the creeds of the East.
Maitland held these views — or something like them.
Very advanced views they were for those days. If
we followed the quaint fashion of revolutionary times,
and gave him a double nickname to symbolise his
character by allusions, ancient and modern, we might
perhaps call him Erastus-Gallio. Firm in his own
faith, he yet had a horror of thrusting it on other
people. If we inquire what faith was his, we may
describe it as a sort of Georgian Catholicism. His
critics in England called him a pagan — for shortness
perhaps. ' If showing proper respect for their feelings
when I visit their temples is to be a pagan, I am one,'
he rejoined. But we can measure the depth of the
resentment that was roused in England by this attitude
on the part of a British governor by the anxious haste
with which Lord Castlereagh responded to a prompt-
ing from William Wilberforce. Wilberforce's inform-
ants were the missionaries — respectable authorities,
no doubt. But their view — that 200,000 eager cate-
chumens had been deprived, by a stroke of Maitland's
pen, of all means of learning the truths of the Gospel —
was not sound. Wilberforce no doubt acted rightly
in reporting their view to Castlereagh. He would

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 119

have done better to have aw^aited the minister's reply
before concluding that Maitland v^^as the monster of
vi'ickedness that he assumed him to be. But the
temper in w^hich he sought to remedy matters is well
set forth in the follow^ing extract from his diary,
^We are to save only about ^1500 by what is the
moral and religious ruin of the island. O Lord, how
deeply do we provoke Thy resentment ! Yet have
mercy on us, and spare us, much as we deserve
punishment. I have had some intercourse with Lord
Castlereagh about it.'

This extract reveals a state of mind that one would
rather leave veiled than pry into. Nevertheless, as
the attack on Maitland was made, it is only just to
him to examine in what temper it was made. Here
we have it. Wilberforce saw nothing incongruous in
mixing up the ^^1500 and the interview with Lord
Castlereagh with his own expression of profound self-
abasement, and prayer that the Divine wrath might
be averted. It is not with a view of dwelling on this
incongruity that this passage from his diary is cited.
His language was in accordance with the religious
feelings of his school and his day, and was perfectly
honest and genuine.

The points on which it is submitted that Maitland
was right and Wilberforce wrong are two. The
first is the quiet assumption that Maitland's reported
action would be the * moral and religious ruin of the
island.' Surely Christians are not the only moral and

120 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

religious people on the face of the globe. Secondly,
Wilberforce was praying for pardon for a crime
which, as a matter of fact, had not been committed,
Castlereagh was clearly somewhat inclined to this
opinion, for Wilberforce, in reporting his interview to
a friend, wrote, ' You cannot conceive (yes, you can,
on reflection) how cool Lord Castlereagh was about
the schools.'

In reply to Castlereagh, Maitland remarked that
he had presented, out of his own pocket, the most
expensive service of communion plate that could be
ordered, and evidently considered that he could not
be called on for any further display of religious zeal.
But he reported constrainedly, adding, 'If a man must
speak of such things.' Evidently the whole subject
gave him pain. Not so much because of the suspicion
of himself that was implied, as on account of the
distastefulness of making such a subject the matter
of official inquiry. There was quite as much of
religious feeling in Maitland's attitude as in Wilber-
force's, although his harsh style makes one as un-
comfortable as Wilberforce's exaltation. It is hardly
to be denied that Maitland's conduct was the highest
wisdom, and that the zeal of Wilberforce was not
according to knowledge. The abstention of the civil
arm from any intrusion on the sacred ground of
religious belief is one of the surest supports of
British domination. Forcible religious conversion
may succeed ; in fact has succeeded ; but only at the

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 121

expense of degrading the converts and crippling their
country. But it more often fails, and when it fails
it leaves behind it the seeds of a hatred that endures
longer than that induced by any other course of
human action. There was, however, one direction
in which Maitland decided that a certain amount of
pressure was justifiable. It was no part of the
Buddhist faith that its priests should be dependent
on the authority of the High Priest at Kandy ; and
it was politically inconvenient that they should feel
themselves to be so. He did not scruple, therefore,
to bind the Buddhist priests in our dominions to our
interests, rather than allow them to become the
nominees of Kandy. So much interference was
justifiable and useful, but in all religious matters he
moved very reluctantly, and only after long ponder-
ing and with many precautions. The Dutch had
insisted on candidates for public office professing the
Reformed Faith, so numerous conversions took place.
But Maitland was sceptical as to their thoroughness.
He observed that in courts of law, when a man
professed himself a Christian, and took the oath
according to the Christian form, the other party
always insisted on the Christian repeating the oath
in Buddhist form, and the Christian never refused.
From this he drew the inference that neither party
thought the Christian oath binding, which would
not be the case if conversions were generally believed
to have been for conscience's sake.

122 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

After the resignation of Lushington, and his with-
drawal from Ceylon, there only occurred one event of
importance during Maitland's tenure of office : this
was the mutiny at Seringapatam. Before dealing
with this, however, we may with profit note the very
remarkable progress that the governor had made in
his internal administration, in spite of interruption
from outside, and obstruction where he might have
looked for support. From the outset he had set
himself to work to balance the accounts, and to
accumulate, if possible, a surplus. Maitland held that
no government was entirely successful unless it could
point to a surplus. Considering the frightful con-
fusion of the finances of the island when Maitland
took over charge, the accumulation of a surplus may
well have been held to be an impossibility. Some
very short mention has already been made of the
measures that Maitland took to stop the leakage of
public money and to develop the resources of the
island. Undoubtedly the measure that produced the
greatest results was the infusion, by means of his own
personal influence, of a new spirit into the civil
service. Private trade was strictly forbidden to civil
servants. It was further intimated to them that very
strict accounts would be demanded from them in the
future. These accounts, especially when followed by
a personal visit by the governor, were a very different
affair from the loose audit that had been enforced by
Maitland's predecessor. Almost all the officers were

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 123

involved ; some of them deeply involved. Tv^^o of
them — Mylius, a Dutchman, and Kirbey, an English-
man — committed suicide rather than survive to see
their accounts inspected. The loss to government
in the second case was not much under ^^20,000 ; but
v^^ith time the greater part of this sum v^^as recovered.

Private trade being forbidden, the governor had no
hesitation in saying that the service was now under-
paid. His own expenses of installation, which he
only partly recovered, had amounted to £jooo.
Although a poor man, he lived lavishly ; and though
a miser in the public service he disapproved of misers
in private life. One officer, who was eligible for pro-
motion, he deliberately passed over on the ground
that he was excessively greedy of money. Precisely
for these reasons he insisted that the service ought to
be well-paid — much better paid than it was. An easy
existence, he said, was indispensable to a man if he
was to do heavy work in the East. If the services
felt his hand somewhat heavily in the matter of
private trade and public money, there is no room
for blaming the governor on that head ; for the
system that preceded his own was fatally easy-going ;
and where their just interests were affected he rigor-
ously championed their cause.

The effect of five years of this work was seen
when the mutiny at Seringapatam broke out. The
mutiny at Vellore had tested the government of
Ceylon severely. It struck Maitland's work, so to

124 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

speak, between wind and water ; he himself had very
grave doubts whether it would not end in our losing
Ceylon altogether. But the mutiny at Seringapatam
three years later found him in a much stronger posi-
tion 5 and although the actual danger was more
serious than on the occasion of the mutiny at
Vellore, the governor expressed no anxiety about
the state of his own charge, and denuded Ceylon
of European troops in order to support the Madras
Government without fear and without hesitation.

The mutiny on this occasion was that of the
European officers, not of the native troops. It was
occasioned by a measure of economy advised by Lord
William Bentinck, and carried out by Sir George
Barlow, his successor. Bentinck and Barlow were
two of the bravest blunderers that have ever been
employed in the Indian services. Bentinck was a
soldier ; Barlow was a civilian. Bentinck had the
excuse (if it is an excuse and not an aggravation) of
being ignorant of local conditions. Barlow had no
excuse at all. He was a civilian who had been
created, for long and distinguished services, a baronet.
He had been also created a K.B. as some compensa-
tion for not succeeding Lord Cornwallis as governor-
general. His whole life had been spent in India,
and he was therefore perfectly aware of the risks that
he was running, in treating the Madras army with a
mixture of insolence and contempt that no troops, not
the meekest in the world, could be expected to endure

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 125

with patience. The risk, as he very well knew, was
that he might break down the fabric of British rule.
He ran that risk, and when he had set the whole
Presidency in a flame, he applied to Maitland for help.
Maitland was quite accustomed to this by now. He
sent off his European troops at six hours' notice, and
abstained, on this occasion, from comments which
were as clearly useless to the Madras Government
(since no attention was paid to them) as they were
damaging to himself. But he allowed himself to
make some comments to the Secretary of State.
'They are making a mess of things on the coast,'
he wrote. 'Barlow shows great personal courage,
but he looks at nothing but measures, and never
considers men.' As to the source of the troubles, it
was simply 'a complete jumble of all the authorities
in one mass.' Of course the East India Company's
officers have done plenty of good work, but there is
' a total want of every well-regulated principle of
military subordination' in their army. When the
mutiny was suppressed, he wrote, ' they have got well
out of a scrape,' but Lord Minto's measures left the
situation ' dangerous, insecure and uncomfortable to
a degree beyond conception.' The Madras Govern-
ment continually issues soothing resolutions, but
everybody knows that jealousy, discord and dis-
satisfaction abound. But nothing will induce him
to interfere again.

It was shortly after the mutiny at Seringapatam

126 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

that Maitland received Lord Liverpoors sanction to a
measure that he had long advocated — the settlement
of Ceylon by Europeans. Nothing else, Maitland
had said for years past, would be of any avail. The
natives had no capital, and if they came to accumulate
it, they v^ould still lack the energy to develope the
island. Accordingly, after long delay, permission w^as
given to him to allow Europeans to take up land for
cultivation, but so that no single settler held more
than four thousand acres. This was Maitland's last
considerable piece of work for Ceylon. In the autumn
of 1 8 10 he had a violent attack of seasonal fever, with
rather dangerous complications. As he had served for
more than five years continuously, he now begged to
be relieved of his charge. He was advised that it
would be a serious matter for him to risk another hot
weather in Ceylon. At this time, almost immediately
before the governor's departure. Sir James Mackintosh
was travelling in the island. He has left on record
his estimate of Maitland's work which we may profit-
ably consider, —

*It is impossible for me to do justice to General
Maitland's most excellent administration, which I am
convinced never had an equal in India. By the
cheerful decision of his character, and by his perfect
knowledge of men, he has become universally popular
amidst severe retrenchments. In an island where
there was in one year a deficit of ^700,000, he has
reduced the expenses to the level of the revenue, and

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 127

with his small army of five thousand men he has twice
in the same year given effectual aid to the great
government of Madras w^hich has an army of seventy
thousand.'

We need not be carried away by this opinion, for
Maitland was just the kind of man to strike Mackin-
tosh's imagination. * I cannot learn the game of life,'
he once sadly confessed of himself. Now the * game
of life ' was one in which Maitland was unapproach-
able. No man played it with such consummate
success. Mackintosh's admiration would at once be
compelled by the career of such a man. But if his
own career was somewhat spoilt by his indolence and
his preference of observation to action, these very
faults — if faults they were — made him the more
valuable critic of another man's work. We must not
forget that Maitland and Mackintosh were old allies,
for Mackintosh had been the secretary to the Society
of the Friends of the People, of which Maitland had
been a founder. But we must also not forget Mackin-
tosh's judicial habit of mind, his keen observation,
and the uprightness of his character. On the whole
we may accept without misgiving this tribute to
Maitland's work. He found the Civil Service corrupt
and inefficient ; he left it purged from corruption and
as efficient as a service can be expected to be that is
recruited with boys of fifteen. He found a mountain
of debt, which he paid off, and vast leakages of ex-
penditure, which he stopped. He found scandalous

^UtlW^

128 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

profits being made in every direction, one example of
which will suffice. The victualling contractors of the
navy gave up ^^ 30,000 a year rather than relinquish
their contract. These profits he could not always
deal with directly, owing to the divided authority of
of the Army, the Navy and the Company ; but he
did much to frighten the peculators.

He found vast tracts of country uncultivated ; he
brought them back to cultivation. He found the
whole fabric of native society dislocated ; he restored
it. He found war with Kandy impending. At the
expense of a few pounds sterling and a few toys he
kept it ofF for five years. * My relations with Kandy
are precisely the same as they were when I took
office,' he wrote, with just pride. He found the
restoration of the Batavian Republic being not
obscurely plotted ; he got rid of the conspirators.
He found the judicial authority openly lording it
over the executive. By an admirable combination
of patience and defiance he routed the Chief Justice
and drove him out of the island. He found the
native armies on the verge of rebellion ; they never
ventured to rebel, not even when the island was de-
nuded of European troops. He twice saved Southern
India from the consequence of the mischievous folly
of two successive governors.

These are not startling or impressive achieve-
ments, and they have all been forgotten. They are all
in the realm of pure administration. They were

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 129

achieved by the governor himself acquiring an in-
timate knovi^ledge of every trifling detail of the
service ; by his determination to put up w^ith any
inconvenience, any aflront even, so long as the King
was best served by his governor showing tact and
patience. But when the time for patience was past,
he bore down obstruction and insubordination with a
resolution that was nothing short of ferocity. His
labours in Ceylon are now totally forgotten ; but he
was soon to be employed on a task, one part of which
(like his work in Ceylon) remains to this day, and one
part of which has been swept away. In connection
with this task, which filled the last twelve years of
his life, his name is still faintly remembered, but
remembered more on account of his personal defects
and eccentricities than for the excellence of the fabric
that he reared. How far we have been just in this
judgment we shall be able to decide when we have
examined Maitland's work in the Mediterranean.

CHAPTER X

MALTA ANCIENT AND MODERN RIVALRIES IN THE

MEDITERRANEAN THE ROUTE TO THE EAST

THE PLAGUE AN ATMOSPHERE OF ARSENIC AND

BRIMSTONE QUARREL WITH THE DOCTORS ;

THEY ARE ROUTED QUARREL WITH THE

ADMIRAL SUCCESS OF MAITLAND's MEASURES

On the historic stage of the Mediterranean all the
nations of the old world have at different times sought
to play parts ; some have striven to play leading parts,
and a few have succeeded in doing so. Future historians
will probably single out two great rivalries for the
mastery of the inland sea : in the ancient world the
rivalry of Rome and Carthage, and in the modern
world the rivalry of England and France. Carthage,
a commercial and colonising power, sought to make
herself mistress of the Mediterranean and failed. If
we enquire why she failed, we shall find that it was
not so much Rome who defeated Hannibal as the
Carthaginian Senate. Quite different is the case with
the great modern rivalry. France — marked out (to
all appearance) by nature as the dominant power in

130

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 131

the Mediterranean — has failed to secure the undisputed
position that she would seem to desire, for the reason
that her schemes of domination were royal or minis-
terial schemes, and lacked the driving force that is
supplied by the backing of the popular will. If we
inquire, on the other hand, why England is at the
present moment playing a leading part in the Medi-
terranean, we shall find that it is not so much the
genius of her admirals or the prowess of her soldiers, as
the impulse of the British nation that has projected
English influence from the Pillars of Hercules to
Alexandria.

A vague conclusion of this kind is most unsatisfac-
tory unless borne out by abundance of evidence. The
evidence is there. All through the second half of the
seventeenth and the whole of the eighteenth century
we are incessantly confronted with the same situation.
A point of vantage is gained in the Mediterranean,
and forthwith the Cabinet sets to work to trade away
the post. Sometimes the ministry goes so far as to
face Parliament with their proposals ; and in the
Commons those proposals are invariably received not
only with uneasiness but with determined opposition.
More often, when a hint of their intentions has been
allowed to escape as a sort of feeler, the temper of
the country has answered the mute question in so
unmistakable a manner, that the Cabinet has incon-
tinently dropped the subject : to agitate it was to
precipitate their own fall.

132 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

Of all the places that we have at different times
held along the waterway, none has been so frequently
a subject for angry discussion in our own days as
Gibraltar. The * immorality ' of holding it has been
as often insisted on as the inexpediency. Just at
present there seems to be a tacit consent to drop the
question of its surrender. Far other was the state of
mind of the successive ministries of England through-
out the eighteenth century. Gibraltar was expen-
sive ; it was useless, being a mere 'barren rock'; it
constantly embroiled us with Spain ; it aroused the
jealousy of France. We can count no fewer than six
determined attempts to get rid of it. These attempts
took the form, now of a royal promise, now of a
ministerial undertaking ; but they never attained to
a more definite shape, for the Commons of England
forbade it. There was very little attempt at reason ;
the debates were mere menace and declamation. This
determined, if unreasoning, attitude of mind attained
to a remarkable pitch of exaltation directly England
acquired a second post in the Mediterranean. Gib-
raltar was ' the brightest gem in the Crown of Eng-
land ' ; but if we condense this nebulous phrase it
comes merely to this, that Gibraltar is necessary as
a support for Minorca. Minorca, on the other hand,
was ' indispensable to the honour and security of our
country.' But this, upon examination, turns out to be
merely a paraphrase of the conclusion that Minorca is
necessary as a support for Gibraltar. When Minorca

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 133

fell, the whole nation was stirred to its depths. It was
not, as some have held, a few ' raucous jingoes ' who
called for Byng's blood ; it was the entire population
of the United Kingdom : they must have blood for
this dishonour. The people fell into that state of
mind (so rare with Englishmen) which is exactly
described by the phrase that our neighbours so often
employ in moments of disaster — Nous sommes trahis.

Very different was the language of the nation about
a West Indian island, or an Indian or African settle-
ment. When there was a question of any such loss
or gain, the ministry clearly understood what their
course should be : they would have to deal with the
Africa House, with the 'West Indian interest,' or
with Leadenhall Street. Outside this little ring of
commercial interests, there was but small agitation ; and
none that any ministry was afraid to face, if not with
rhetoric, then with stolid composure. But to touch
the Mediterranean was to awaken the curiosity and
anxiety of the constituencies. It profits nothing to
rail at this temper. The only course that is open to
a statesman face to face with such an exhibition is to
accept it as the index of a nation's destiny. It cannot
be turned aside ; it cannot be defied ; still less can it
be reasoned with, for it hardly pretends to be rational ;
it is hardly more and nothing less than an obstinate
resolve.

We are accustomed to speak of * the Mediterranean
Route to the East,' and we constantly reason as if

134 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

there would be no talk of our holding the Mediter-
ranean if we did not happen to hold India. So that, if
only it could be made clear that there were several
alternative, and even preferable, routes to the East,
opposition to our withdrawal from the Mediterranean
would subside. History does not lead us to any such
facile conclusion. On the contrary, history tells us
that long before the phrase ^ the Mediterranean Route
to the East ' was dreamed of, long before men thought
of the great waterway except as an ocean inlet where
we might have some trifling trade interests, the
mind of England was doggedly set upon securing for
her fleets the domination of the Mediterranean. It
was not till the close of the eighteenth century that
France, by invading the East, showed us what the use
of the Mediterranean was. Even then the demonstra-
tion was incomplete. No less a man than Mr Pitt
brushed it aside. That expression, indeed, falls short
of explaining his state of mind on the subject. To
brush a view aside, a man must at any rate take
some notice of the view submitted to him. Mr Pitt
took no notice of it at all. He simply ignored the
whole question of the Mediterranean considered as a
route. He estimated the amount of our annual
trade with the Smyrna ports, contrasted it with
our trade with Jamaica or Calcutta, and concluded
that it was nought. The deduction was obvious :
we must retire at once from all our conquests, so as
to avoid giving umbrage to France. So Mr Pitt was

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 135

only one more, if the most illustrious, in the long
line of British statesmen who have done their best to
keep us out of the Mediterranean, or to uproot our
influence there when once it was founded. Never-
theless, at the Great Peace, the Mediterranean was
more than potentially an English lake. In order to
understand Maitland's difficulties on taking over his
new charge, we shall have to examine, as briefly as
possible, the series of events that led up to this
singular situation.

They all fall into shape round Napoleon's three
attempts to dominate the route. It was hotly con-
tended at the time that Napoleon was a harmless and
even a benevolent monarch, who meant no manner
of damage to England, if we had not given him pro-
vocation. So much of history has been unravelled in
the course of the last hundred years that it is per-
haps unnecessary to refute that proposition. There is
now no doubt that, as Maitland put it, the object
of France was to conquer England in India, or to
conquer India in England. This is a curious an-
ticipation of Napoleon's own phrase, * I will re-
conquer Pondicherry on the shores of the Vistula.'

The three attempts were preceded by the expul-
sion of the English in the year that Maitland sailed
for San Domingo. Next year came the Egyptian
expedition, which was intended to extend French
influence through Egypt to India. The chief events
of this war (which closed at the Peace of Amiens)

136 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

as regards England in the Mediterranean were
the Battle of the Nile, the occupation of Minorca,
the capture of Malta, and Baird's march through the
desert. The net result was that, instead of French
influence being extended through Egypt to India, it
was, on the contrary, England that was drawn from
India to Egypt and permanently encamped at Malta.
After 1802 there followed a sort of interregnum,
composed of a short peace and a time of intense
anxiety for England, during the whole of which
period Napoleon was rapidly pushing on his prepara-
tions for conquering India in England. This period
closes with Trafalgar. It was now plainly impossible
for France to effect anything material where a great
fleet was necessary. Napoleon instantly turned to
his alternative scheme, which was that of surround-
ing the Continent of Europe with a ring fence of
tariffs, the object of which was to ruin the com-
merce of England. This period began with Aus-
terlitz. The Emperor's first thought was for the
Mediterranean. ' La dynastie de Naples a cesse de
regner ' was among his earliest proclamations from
Schonbrunn. His brother Joseph mounted the
vacant throne, and Napoleon's second attempt to
dominate the route was made. This was to be
compassed by thrusting his arm down the peninsula
of Italy, and throwing the English right and left.
The English answer to this was the occupation of
Sicily. 'Lose not a moment in seizing Sicily,' he

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 137

commanded King Joseph immediately after the
crown had been conferred on him : then, later,
*I will never make peace without having Sicily.'

But Sicily was an island, and to seize an island
without a fleet was beyond even Napoleon's power.
The second attempt to control the route simply
ended in a very great enhancement of the power of
England. So long as France had only to defend her
own shores, her fleet was adequate to the task. But
by extending the frontiers of France throughout the
whole length of the double coast line of Italy, the
Emperor gave us an opportunity of fastening our fangs
into the body of the empire — an opportunity that we
gleefully embraced. We could not be shaken ofF;
and from the moment of its foundation the French
kingdom of Naples was slowly bleeding to death. It
was not so much the famous battle of Maida that
effected this, as our minor expeditions. Maida was,
in effect, an insignificant combat ; although, in a
way, a forerunner of Waterloo. It had a prodigious
vogue at the time and earned for Sir John Stuart
the dignity of a Neapolitan count, and the grandiose
title * The Hero of the Plains of Maida.' But Maida
was only an incident. Our army was insignificant,
but our navy was all-powerful ; and wherever a little
seaport garrison flew the flag of imperial France,
there, in due time, descended an English expedition,
superior in force, and resting on the fleet. When a
superior French force was marched overland to oust

138 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

us we quietly retired, having caused the enemy vast
expense and anxiety at no cost w^hatever to ourselves.
In this w^ay vv^e occupied Capri, Procida, Ischia, Ponza
and Ventotiene among other places. For the French
the situation w^as hardly endurable : for the English
it v^^as a mere series of holiday excursions. This state
of things lasted from the date of the occupation of
Vienna by Napoleon down to the date of the Treaty
of Tilsit. A secret article in this treaty gave the
Emperor his third and last chance of dominating the
Mediterranean route, for it provided for the cession of
the Ionian Islands by Russia to France.

The French were unable to move a single regiment
from one port of the Mediterranean to another.
But they could, and did, march a mighty army across
Europe, and wring this great concession from Alex-
ander at the point of the sword. This is hardly a
more remarkable fact than that Russia should have
islands in the Mediterranean in her gift. By what
astounding chances the Ionian Isles fell under Russian
domination will be examined when we come to con-
sider the work of the first British Lord High Com-
missioner there. At present we have only to observe
that the object of the secret article was to secure for
France a point of vantage in the Mediterranean, as
a support for the French kingdom of Naples, and a
set-ofF to Malta. The annexation of Corfu and the
dependent islands formed the third attempt of Napoleon
to dominate the route to India j or perhaps, we should

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 139

say, to modify so far as possible the complete control
of it that had now been acquired by England. It is
hardly necessary to point out that he was foredoomed
to failure. If his fleet could not protect Naples, or
conquer Sicily, how much less could it maintain the
dominion of France in seven little islands that could
be cut off and reduced one by one. On our side,
if harrying the coasts of Naples was so easy as hardly
to be called active service, still less was the reduction
of the Ionian Islands to be reckoned among the con-
siderable achievements of the British fleet. The
islands fell, one after the other, almost without resist-
ance, and at the Great Peace were handed over to
England under exceptional and 'burdensome conditions.
But outwardly, and to the uninstructed eye, 18 15
found us in complete mastery of the Mediterranean
from end to end. Malta was ours, the Ionian Islands
were ours, except with reservations that were often
not taken seriously. Minorca was only not ours be-
cause we did not choose to keep it. 'Minorca is
ours whenever we like to take it,' Nelson had written,
and accordingly we had handed it back to Spain. We
even occupied Lampedusa, a little island about one
hundred and fifty miles from the coast of Africa.
Some importance was attached at the time to the
possession of this little rock. It certainly appeared
on the map as if it were a formidable support to
Malta, the two islands together completely blocking
the waterway. Through Corfu we commanded the

140 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

Adriatic ; Gibraltar, the impregnable rock, closed the
Straits. For years we had occupied Sicily ; and it
was well understood that the Neapolitan Bourbons
owed their restored throne to England and to England
alone. Egypt we had occupied, and handed back to
the Porte in the name of the integrity of the Otto-
man Empire. This was the result of the century-
long struggle to get us out of the Mediterranean.
The chief features of the struggle were the extreme
jealousy of our presence there that had always been
shown by France, and the nervous eagerness of suc-
cessive British Cabinets to show every consideration
for that jealousy. This situation reached its highest
pitch of development at the Peace of Amiens, when,
in spite of the French having (in the Egyptian ex-
pedition) shown us their hand in the openest manner,
even Mr Pitt acquiesced in the retirement from all our
conquests, thus leaving the way open for a second dash
on the East on the part of France. On this occasion, as
on so many earlier occasions, it was the dogged deter-
mination of the British people that defeated at one
and the same time France and the British Cabinet.
The resolve to hold on to Malta provoked the second
and third attempts of Napoleon to break the chain
of our communications, and resulted in England secur-
ing the complete and exclusive domination of the
Mediterranean from end to end.

Exactly fifty years after Maitland entered on his
work in the Mediterranean the old spirit of retiring

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 141

at any cost flared up again in England. On this
occasion it so far commended itself to the British
people as to produce the most famous surrender of
modern times — that of the Ionian Islands. This
surrender was made by way of a concession to the
sensibilities of the Greeks; just as, throughout the
eighteenth century, the surrender of Gibraltar was
continually designed by way of a concession to the
feelings of the Spaniards. In such matters England
is not supposed to have any sensibilities ; or, at
least, her Cabinets do not encourage her to indulge
them. But in 1813, when Maitland assumed the
Governorship of Malta, there was no longer any
talk of this kind to be heard. He stepped on to this
stage in the eyes of all the world as the visible
embodiment of the mastery of the Mediterranean
by England. That mastery had been won after
fifteen years of incessant fighting, and it was clearly
understood that he was sent there to maintain it.
The obscure colonial governor was now to pit his
brains against the astutest intriguer of Europe —
we shall see with what success, and how events
justified his attitude. These quasi-external em-
barrassments gave him more anxiety than the
current difficulties of his administration; but these
latter were weightier by far than any that he had
hitherto been called upon to face. In San Domingo
and the United States he had been set to weave
ropes of sand; but though the situation weighed

142 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

heavily upon him, an untried man, the issues were
not really momentous. His work in Ceylon was
as fine as could be; but the stage was small and
obscure. In the Mediterranean he was the centre
of a world of plots and intrigues, of baffled ambitions
and clamorous hopes. It was here that he earned
for himself the nickname King Tom — the offspring
of affectionate admiration and marvelling hatred.

He landed at Valetta on the 3d of October
1 8 13, and assumed the government on the 5th.
The plague was raging. *We breathe very much
through a medium of arsenic and brimstone at
present,' he wrote, *but I am told, when I get
accustomed to it, it will be quite delicious.' The
physical atmosphere he was prepared to accept,
under protest ; but the moral atmosphere he was
determined to alter forthwith. It was Maitland's
fate to find his authority uncertain wherever he
went. In San Domingo he had none; in Ceylon
he must needs rest content to share it with
Lushington until he could find time to deal with
him ; in Malta he was expected to be the humble
servant of the doctors. He sent for them, one by
one, and asked of each, ' What is the plague ? '
* How can you tell whether a given disease is
plague or not ? ' As there was no possible answer
to either of these questions that could be regarded
as satisfactory, the governor gave the faculty to
understand that, under the circumstances, he con-

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 143

sidered that he knew as much as they did, and
that he therefore proposed to resume the reins of
government. * Nothing can be more absurd,' he
wrote, ' than to suppose that any medical man is
a bit better judge than any other member of the
community how the plague is to be stopped.' *The
whole of the cure consists in two things: care and
separation — the rest is nonsense ' — including, perhaps,
the arsenic and brimstone.

Certainly the measures of the medical men had
not been remarkable for wisdom. They commenced
with the establishment, here and there, of pest-houses,
combined, as Maitland wrote, with so little care to
prevent the spread of infection that the only wonder
was that the plague had even partially subsided. The
governor's first measure was to abolish the pest-
houses — which turned the whole island into one
vast hospital — and establish a lazzaretto island. The
principal measure, he wrote over and over again, is
to isolate the case, and this is a step that has very
little dependence on medicine and its professors.
Careful to guard himself from the appearance of
arbitrary dealing, he quoted the conduct of the
government to which we had succeeded — that of the
Knights of St John of Jerusalem. Far from leaving
the subject of ' sanita ' to the doctors, they would
not even leave it to the Grand Master, but jealously
reserved it for a committee of Grand Crosses. The
committee sent for the doctors once a week and

144 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

gave them instructions, but unless they were asked
for their advice they w^ere never permitted to give
it, or to take any steps on their own initiative.
Perhaps in revenge for being so long and strictly
held in, they claimed such powers from the British
that Sir Hildebrand Oakes (Maitland's predecessor)
had to put his foot down so as to avoid losing the
reins of government altogether, whereupon they
all resigned their posts on the Medical Board, 'the
most fortunate event that could have taken place,'
commented Maitland. 'If the plague gets a fresh
start' (he wrote), 'I shall have to put the island
under martial law.' Not that this strong measure
would make much difference, for at the moment
of writing the infected villages were all surrounded
with cordons of troops who were under orders to
fire on anyone attempting to pass them. But at
the end of a month's work he still had to write,
'the plague is the most teasing of all things,' not
only for itself, but because it isolates the island and
stops trade. 'The plague decreases, but the deficit
rolls up.' Sicily was continually writing to him for
bullion, but he could only reply that Sicily and
Malta were, in that respect, in the same boat, 'and
all we can do is to scramble on the best way we
can.'

Sicily, at this time, was more or less in the hands
of Lord William Bentinck, the British Plenipotentiary
at the Court of Palermo. Bentinck sent an agonised

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 145

appeal to Maitland to lend him some troops. The
collection of revenues, he wrote, could only be enforced
by the military ; and Sicily was threatened with con-
fusion and anarchy. If that were the case, it was
Bentinck's own fault, for he had exercised almost un-
bounded authority in the island, and if he could only have
abstained from meddling in what he did not understand,
the term of his embassy might have been looked back
on by the Sicilians as a truly Saturnian reign. As it
was, his statement was a very great exaggeration of
the actual facts. But Bentinck was still the Bentinck
of Vellore. As for sending troops to his assistance,
however, Maitland was in no position to do anything
of the kind. He had only 3200 men under his own
command, and was so tied hand and foot by the
plague that (as he wrote to Sir Henry Bunbury on
the 28th December 181 3) he had not even touched
his instructions. It was impossible to do anything
but look after the plague and keep the island
quiet.

In the midst of his troubles, Admiral Langhorne
arrived from Gibraltar with three men on board
suffering from yellow fever. He proposed to land
them, but Maitland would not allow it. The admiral
urged that his fleet might become infected, and Mait-
land said that he would deeply grieve if that should
occur. But, he added, the people of the Mediterranean
are infinitely more afraid of the yellow fever than they
are of the plague. If it once got about that the yellow

146 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

fever had been in Malta, the island would be quaran-
tined for God knows how long, 'which would have
the most fatal consequences ; for we are already in
positive want, and we should then have a famine in
addition to our other comforts.' It was a very serious
situation for the admiral, however, and there is little
to wonder at in his insisting, with some irritation,
that his invalids should be allowed to land. But
Maitland had enough troubles on his own shoulders
without taking Admiral Langhorne's as well ; and
even though the admiral grew disagreeably (although,
from his point of view, perhaps justifiably) heated over
the dispute, Maitland would not budge. His perse-
verance was rewarded. By July 18 14 he was able
to report that every vestige of the plague had disap-
peared from Malta, although at Smyrna they were
dying at the rate of 1000 a day, and at Alexandria
at the rate of 500 a day. The disease was
raging all over Greece, and even in Tunis. The
last case of the plague in Valetta was on the 20th of
October 18 13, in the lazaretto of Valetta on the 31st
of January 18 14, in the lazaretto of Curmi on the
7th of March 1814, and in Gozo on the nth June
1 8 14. Nevertheless, Sicily refused pratique as late as
February 18 15 for a very curious reason. Not on
account of any real dread of infection ; because, as
Maitland wrote, ' Never was plague so little concealed
or so thoroughly stamped out.' Nor was it because
the Sicilian Government was particularly unfriendly

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 147

towards us ; but simply because the smuggling trade
paid the merchants of Sicily (English merchants
mostly, we regret to record) so well that the profits
gave them the wherewithal to bribe the Sicilian sanita
to refuse pratique,

Maitland did not, however, wait for the plague to
subside before he addressed himself to his instructions.
As soon as it was fairly on the way to extinction he
commenced his report to Lord Bathurst on the state
of the island. Many changes would have to be made,
but in the forefront of his action he placed this recorded
conviction, ' To make a change beneficial we must at
all times look not only at the thing itself, but at the
temper with which it is received.' This conviction
it was that marked Maitland off from the Norths and
the Bentincks. It was because he acted in this spirit
that he was able to effect so much with so little friction.
Personal animosities he might and did arouse ; but he
could afford to despise them, because his measures were
sound, and because he always looked * not only at the
thing itself, but at the temper with which it was
received.' He had need of all his tact to deal with
the unique and highly complicated situation that he
was called upon to face in Malta.

CHAPTER XI

MALTA INTERNAL AFFAIRS THE BARBARY STATES

SANCTUARY AUTHORITY OF THE HOLY SEE

LAW REFORMS — THE UNIVERSITA THE HOSPITAL

Over all Maltese business there brooded two most
menacing tempers, that of the ecclesiastical power,
and the popular temper induced by the ecclesiastical
power. The two questions that Maitland must needs
deal with at once were, the Right of Sanctuary, and
the Church of St John of Jerusalem. Formerly the
right of sanctuary had been insi'^ted on in all cases.
Then it was given up, except in cases of murder and
treason ; but an affidavit was always required to the
effect that the accused should not be tried by the
civil arm until he had been found guilty by the
Bishop's Court. The difficulty here was that from
the Bishop's Court an appeal lay to Rome ; so that
there was no finahty of jurisdiction in the island.
On this point Maitland made himself clear at once.
There could be no question of any appeal outside the
island except to the Sovereign. Moreover, if he
found that sanctuary interfered with the administra-
tion of justice, he should not hesitate to abolish it

148

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 149

altogether. That he might offend the people was
possible ; but the first indispensable condition of a
well-ordered State being a sound judicial system, he
should not hesitate in such a matter to face popular
discontent. With these preliminary remarks to the
archdeacon, he then announced his willingness to
make any reasonable compromise. He had no objec-
tion, he said, to an appeal to the bishop and two
assessors. The archdeacon assured the governor that
the bishop's authority would not be found to be an
obstruction to the course of justice. ' I am inclined
to agree with him,' commented Maitland grimly.
Then with that cynical frankness that was rapidly
growing to be his habit, he added, to the Secretary
of State, ' I have little doubt that an arrangement
could be made on this head, carrying into effect
every substantive purpose of justice, and reducing the
Bishop's Court and the Court of Assessors to a mere
nonentity.' The question was very early raised on
a side issue, and in a manner that would have en-
trapped any man less wary.

On the 1st of January 18 14, a Te Deum for the
subsidence of the plague was ordered to be sung in
the Church of St John of Jerusalem. The Te Deum
was ordered by proclamation, and the bishop immedi-
ately wrote and inquired whether His Excellency
proposed to attend. His Excellency was a heretic,
and might have pleaded lack of grace, but he foresaw
that though he might, in this manner, glide out of the

I50 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

present embarrassment, he would be laying up a crop
of difficulties in the future. He therefore announced
his intention of being present. The bishop then
inquired whether the governor would occupy the
throne. Now the throne of the Grand Master of
the Knights of Malta was placed on the north side
of the high altar, and, by special licence from His
Holiness, it was within the altar rails. To occupy it
would be, in a measure, to admit the very authority
which — in the matter of the Courts of Law — Maitland
was disputing. To leave it unoccupied would be an
admission that some part, at any rate, of the authority
of the Grand Master was lacking to his successor. In
the eyes of the people the inference would be obvious,
and the governor would lose no inconsiderable amount
of prestige. Nevertheless, with a fine expression of
modesty, Maitland said that, as he could not himself
pretend to a licence from the Holy See, it would be
quite improper for him to sit within the altar rails, and
he should occupy a smaller throne immediately outside
them. In that case, said the bishop, perhaps the
bishop had better occupy the throne. Not at all,
returned Maitland ; the throne was for the Sovereign ;
that much was perfectly established from long usage.
Now the Sovereign was absent in England, he,
Maitland, being merely the Sovereign's deputy. The
proper course, therefore, was for the Royal Arms to
occupy the throne, while the bishop would sit opposite
to the governor, on the other side of the altar.

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 151

Thus dexterously, and by a complete surprise, did
Maitland evade a situation fraught with a distinct and
public menace to his authority. It was impossible for
anyone to take offence, for he had conducted the
delicate negotiation from first to last in a humble
and diffident manner. Although he had deposed the
bishop from the first place to the third in this and
all succeeding gorgeous functions, he had not taken
the first place himself, and had throughout consulted
nothing but the dignity of his master. To cavil at
his decision would be merely disloyal.

The next question that he had to decide was that
of church accommodation for the garrison. It had
been suggested to him either to take the Church of
St John for this purpose, or else the disused Church
of the Jesuits. In such matters, as we have already
seen, Maitland moved most reluctantly. An order,
he said, he would obey, but he prayed the Secretary
to consider how hardly the population of Malta would
take either of these steps. Accommodation must be
provided without a doubt, but let us provide it, if it
can by any possibility be managed, without disturbing,
not to say deeply wounding, the feelings of the
people.

His alternative was ready, and, though expensive,
he nevertheless urged it, in spite of the pangs that
spending public money always cost him. The alter-
native was the enlargement of the palace chapel. To
his great relief the Secretary approved of his sug-

152 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

gestion, and the Roman Catholic churches were left
untouched.

He returned at once to the reform of the judicial
system, and submitted a draft of regulations for a
new commercial court, of which the ninth clause
must be quoted verbatim^ so eloquent is it of the
state of things that Maitland was dealing with. ' All
private applications relative to depending causes,
whether of professional men or of suitors to the
judges or consuls, shall be prohibited under the fol-
lowing penalties, namely, that the professional men
be degraded from their profession, and be deemed
incapable of serving in any court in this island and
its dependencies. The party to the cause, whether
plaintiff or defendant, shall undergo a penalty of
one-half of the amount in dispute.'

Extraordinary as this clause appears, it was the
only way of dealing with the prevailing system under
which every cause was iniquitously settled, so to speak,
* in chambers,' chambers of bribery and corruption.
The open trial in court which took place subsequently
was a mere piece of dull play-acting, unless by signs
in court the party forejudged could induce the judge
to alter his decision. In this case the proceedings,
although still the very reverse of judicial, rapidly be-
came the reverse of dull ; violent imprecations and
menaces being hurled at the bench, and by the bench
returned with interest. Thus, until Maitland's arrival,
the only check on a general system of judicial oppres-

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 153

sion had been the judge's fear of personal violence at
the hands of the defeated party. His codes were
drawn up under unique difficulties. * There is not
even a Common Law Book here,' he wrote. The
Maltese could give him no help, nor did they wish
to do so ; and Tyers and Laing, his principal English
assistants, were equally helpless. Laing was Chief
Secretary, and made a very good Chief Secretary.
But he was no lawyer, and was, as a matter of fact,
in Holy Orders. Some legal assistance was provided
by the appointment of Mr Wright ; but of him Mait-
land wrote, * I wish Mr Wright had never made his
appearance. He will make a constitution, civil or
criminal, in any given time ; but he does not study
local conditions. He wants to overset the whole law
of the island ; a mighty easy way of saving himself
trouble. It enhances his consequence — which is the
only thing he attends to.' Nevertheless * I think it
will succeed,' he wrote to Bunbury, ' but I long to
hear what Lord Bathurst says.'

He interrupted this important work for a few days
in order to visit Lampedusa, where we were still keep-
ing up a garrison at considerable expense. He was
reminded of our occupation of Lampedusa by Lord
William Bentinck writing to him that Sicily was about
to put in a claim for Malta in the approaching settle-
ment of Europe. If this were to be conceded, it
would become important to know whether anything
could be made of the smaller island. Lord Castle-

154 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

reagh's instructions to Bentinck at this juncture were
to recognise the French kingdom of Naples, pro-
vided that Murat, on his part, would recognise Fer-
dinand (formerly King of the two Sicilies) as King
of Sicily, and provided that we could find Ferdinand
some consolation for the loss of the Kingdom of
Naples. Perhaps Malta was to have been the con-
solation ; it would not have been an unreasonable
request from the Sicilian point of view. But Fer-
dinand need not have been alarmed, for Bentinck, to
put it plainly, disobeyed Castlereagh. He did, it is
true, betake himself to Murat's headquarters, but he
presented himself to the King ostentatiously (and,
under the circumstances, one must say, most offen-
sively) wearing the violet cockade of the Neapolitan
Bourbons. Far from recognising Murat as King of
Naples, he would not even recognise him as a King,
and addressed him as Monseigneur. In fact, he entered
on his negotiation with the evident intention of mak-
ing it fail, as it immediately did. But Maitland knew
nothing of all this. He received Bentinck*s note in
the middle of April 1814 ; a month later he was back
in Malta, having reviewed the defences and resources
of Lampedusa, and made up his mind that it could
never be of the slightest use to England. By pro-
clamation dated exactly four months later, he with-
drew all our troops and stores from the island, and
announced that there would be no further connection
between Malta and Lampedusa. There was, it should

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 155

be noted, no natural connection between the two, for
the island was owned by a Neapolitan Prince who
took his title from it, but who lived very modestly
(after the fashion of a good many great people in
those days), and was cheerfully contented to increase
his income by leasing the rock to a successful man
of business.

The governor could now no longer avoid dealing
with the ' Universita,' ' the most difficult and compli-
cated point connected with the island.' It would be
fairer to say that he now, for the first time, found a
little leisure to grapple with this knotty question.
The Universita was not a corporate body entrusted
with the education of youth, as we should infer from
its resemblance to the English word ; it was a board
charged with the duty of purveying food for the con-
sumption of the Maltese. It was also ^ the most
troublesome dunghill of corruption I ever met with ; '
and nothing was more certain than that we should
never recover one shilling of its deficit, so ingeniously
were its accounts kept. Seventy thousand quarters of
wheat were annually required for the maintenance of
the island. It was the most considerable outgoing of
the Maltese treasury, and made the government a great
merchant. Needless to say, vast leakages occurred
over every transaction. ' I have seen a good deal of
corruption in the West Indies and in the East,' wrote
Maitland, *but nothing like what I find in Malta.'
It was not only that the corn contract offered bound-

156 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

less opportunities for fraud : it was that the Maltese,
having grown accustomed to be fed at the public
expense, now considered that all supplies ought to be
furnished by the government — even ice. All this
involved inquiries of a ' most irksome and distressing
nature.* The first point to determine was the quality
of the different grains. There was a very precarious
supply to be obtained from the African coast, and an
abundant supply (but of the worst corn in the Medi-
terranean) from Egypt. The best supply, the most
constant supply of grain of good quality, came from
the Black Sea ; Taganrog corn being preferable
to Odessa. This much determined, he despatched
Richard Flasket, who had been with him in Ceylon,
to Constantinople with ;^ 30,000 to effect the neces-
sary purchases, to dismiss both the rival agents in
the Levant, collect outstanding debts, and order the
various officers of Malta to send in their accounts
immediately. He then turned to the Universita
itself; and here, as elsewhere, he made bad things
serve good ends. In the confusion of the preceding
fifteen years one member of the Board had obtained
a complete ascendancy over all the others in the
external affairs of the Board. He had used his power
corruptly, and was now dead, having wrought as
much confusion as possible. He was an Englishman,
however ; and Maitland gladly made a precedent out
of the state of things that the Board had allowed to
grow customary. He appointed an Englishman to

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 157

succeed Livingston, confirming him formally in the
powers that Livingston had usurped, and thus effected
a radical change under the cloak of follow^ing a prece-
dent. With one responsible Englishman in Malta,
and one responsible Englishman as agent in the
Levant, that control which government had long lost
over this most important item of expenditure was
at once restored. Responsibility was fixed ; and
leakages were stopped. How serious those leakages
had been in the past we may realise by remembering
that (from a chain of circumstances unnecessary to
detail here) there were two rival agents in the Levant
buying corn for the Maltese government, bidding
against each other and raising, at one and the same
time, the price of corn and the rate of exchange.
This was now put a stop to, and the waste thus
prevented, supplemented by the actual saving in
money and stores effected at Lampedusa, relieved
the finances of the island to an appreciable extent.
But Maitland shook his head over them. We are
j^200,ooo in debt, he wrote ; even supposing that
the plague cost us ^^ 100,000, the remaining debt is
still much too large to be easily dealt with. Then
came one of those curious moans that Maitland was
continually emitting about his health. He had only
been at work a year, after a year's holiday, and though
the year had been very trying, it sounds strange to
hear the governor exclaiming that he must have six
months' leave immediately, as his health imperatively

158 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

demanded it. ' I do not sleep upon a bed of roses,'
he wrote at the end of 1814 ; 'but perhaps if I were
granted leave I might go to Rome for my holiday
and see the Pope about the question of sanctuary in
Malta.'

However, the momentous year 18 15 opened, and
found Maitland still at work. By this time despatches
had reached him from England, and informed him that
his work was approved. He warmly acknowledged
the * handsome manner' in which Bathurst spoke of
his services. The new court, he admitted, worked
well or ill according to the temper of each individual
judge ; but, as a total result, they got through
in months what had formerly taken them years.
On the whole, he was satisfied with the spirit in
which his changes had been received ; but there
still remained one very thorny question — that of the
hospital.

Early in January 18 15 the Grand Cross of the Bath
was conferred on Maitland. It was in this year
that the Order, which had formerly consisted of one
class only, on the model of the Orders of the Garter
and the Thistle, was broken up into three divisions,
its present constitution ; and Maitland was in the
first batch of Grand Crosses. But though he was
gazetted (on the 2d of January 1815) he had no
insignia for a long time ; and on the 25th of June
he wrote, 'I wish you would manage to send on by
the first packet the insignia of the Bath either with

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 159

an order for investiture or a dispensation to wear
them. As far as it relates to myself, I should certainly
not have given you this trouble, but the people here
are excessively tenacious on everything of that kind,
and they cannot understand a man being a Grand
Cross w^ithout his wearing the badges thereof.' This
passage is quoted verbatim in order that Maitland's
feelings about decorations may be justly appreciated.
His enemies w^ere accustomed to say that his soldierly
roughness v^as a mere affectation, and that in fact he
was childishly vain, and greedy of adulation and dis-
tinctions. There is abundant evidence of his feelings
to be found in the correspondence relating to the
establishment of the Order of St Michael and St
George. Far from bearing out the view of Maitland's
enemies, it will be found that it shows Maitland to
have been revoltingly cynical on the subject. He
never spoke of Orders (and he wore three Grand
Crosses himself) without obviously imitating the
language of Swift about Flimnap, the treasurer of
Lilliput, and his two pieces of silk — the blue and the
red. Whether his vanity was of that monstrous kind
that can only be covered by so vast an affectation is
the point on which the friends and foes of Maitland
will always be divided. But there is abundant justi-
fication for the view that though his cynical temper
could not resist the temptation to write about
decorations as he did, he yet perfectly recognised
their place in a sound scheme of government. He

i6o BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

neither abused nor lavished them ; in this, as in all
matters, he was punctiliously careful of the King's
honour, and if that be demonstrated, his personal
vanity or lack of vanity is a question of no import
whatever.

Piracy in the Mediterranean was no new grievance,
and Maitland (now Sir Thomas) very early in the
year expressed his anxiety lest our naval forces should
be unequal to the task of dealing with it. He said
that we wanted at least three small ships of war to
protect our trade, and keep open communication with
Smyrna and Constantinople. There was, however,
no immediate menace, and the question that occupied
the governor for some time, and caused a long corre-
spondence with Sir Robert Liston, our Ambassador at
the Porte, was the very undesirable appointment of Mr
Critico as Turkish Consul at Malta. Liston was his
old acquaintance of Philadelphia. 'Though Liston
is an excellent man,' he wrote, ' he is rather timid,
and requires a little hint now and then to get him
to act.' But we must be fair to Liston, and admit
that Critico's immediate recall was not a very easy
thing to ask for from the Turkish government ; and
it was especially disagreeable to him to have to ask
it, because Liston had himself recommended Critico
to Maitland. The consul's offence consisted in
laying on heavier dues for ships clearing for Turkish
ports than the island government charged to Turkish
ships plying to Malta. This was * an unheard of

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND i6i

innovation,' and would materially injure if not totally
annihilate the most lucrative part of the trade of
Malta.' Critico remonstrated with the governor,
and talked of his * embarrassing situation ' : ' nella
mia deli cat ezzay he said, the question ought to be
dealt with more gently. He little knew Maitland.
' Delicatezza ! ' he angrily replied, there was none :
and Mr Critico's course was a very plain one ; he
would either revise his tariff of fees or go. ' Between
ourselves,' he wrote to Bunbury, ' this Critico is a des-
perate bad one. You can find out his character in
England, where he has long lived. . . . It is too much
that the King's Government in England should be
exerting itself to create trade here, and that a vaga-
bond of this description should be doing infinitely
more harm than you can do good.' 'It is totally
impossible to go on with such a fellow ! ' Critico
against Maitland : the fight was decided almost
before it was begun. The man who had routed
Lushington hardly condescended to put on his
armour for a mere consul. Flasket and Hankey
and Wood, the governor's satellites, must have
smiled grimly as they saw Critico going forth to
do battle with 'King Tom' with no more formid-
able weapons than ^ mia delicatezza.^

The question of piracy now suddenly flared up.
As so often happened to Maitland, he found himself
face to face with a situation where he had to act on
his own initiative. As regards the Barbary States^

i62 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

and the attitude that Malta should assume towards
them, his instructions were silent. He did not hesitate
on that account.

'Sir' (he wrote to the Pacha of Tripoli on the i6th
of March 1815), Mt is with extreme regret I feel myself
under the necessity of addressing Your Highness on a
subject that may, in its consequences, compromise
that amicable understanding and friendship which has
so long subsisted between Your Highness and the
British nation. But it is impossible for me to admit
of any open indignity to be shown to the British
nation or the British flag in this neighbourhood, with-
out immediately taking such notice of it as is suitable
to the dignity, power and maritime pre-eminence of
the King, my master.

I therefore have the honour to inform you that I
have sent instructions to His Majesty's Consul, Colonel
Warington, to demand instant redress and reparation
for the insult offered to the British Crown in permit-
ting two vessels with British colours flying to be
seized in the port of Your Highness, and under the
guns of your works ; and I have further directed the
consul to intimate to you that he can enter into no
communication of any kind till such redress is given.'
*My letter to the Pasha,' he wrote to Bunbury, 'is
pretty pithy, but it is the only language that suits
these gentlemen.'

In reporting the incident, he asked that the flaw in
his instructions might be remedied ; but, he added as

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 163

a warning, 'nothing impresses these powers except
military or naval force.'

Lord William Bentinck, having resigned the
Palermo Embassy to A'Court, was already up to his
neck in a fresh difficulty that he had created for him-
self — this time at Genoa. Napoleon had just escaped
from Elba, and no one could tell where he would strike
his first blow. Bentinck, as was usual with him in
times of crisis, lost his head at once, and sent an
urgent appeal to Maitland for support. ' It is most
unpleasant to have to refuse,' wrote Maitland to
Bunbury, but if he were to help Bentinck in Genoa,
he could hardly refuse Macfarlane in Sicily, who was
also asking for the loan of some troops ; and his duty
would not allow him to leave Malta without a garrison.
Bentinck is rather gloomy, he continued, and always
takes the worst point of view. In point of fact there
was no real danger, as Maitland very well knew.
The idea that Napoleon would turn on Italy instead
of proceeding to Paris was the foundation of Bentinck's
alarm. But that Bentinck should have entertained any
such idea only shows to what little purpose he had
followed the great events that were taking place
around him. He had a second, and hardly less lively
scare, which was that the French in Italy would
march against him in the cause of the Emperor. And
yet Bentinck had been in the thick of the negotiations
with Murat, and could hardly have helped knowing
that the King of Naples was about the last person in

i64 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

the world to come to Napoleon's help. That the
public should have been scared and bewildered was
perfectly excusable ; but what was the use of Bentinck's
being in the innermost circle of diplomacy if he was
to share the panics of the ignorant public ?

When the battle of Waterloo put an end to all
uncertainty, Maitland made no allusion to it in his
correspondence, except by noting that it had taken
place, and might be expected to have a favourable
effect on trade. His correspondence is singularly
devoid of comments on passing events. Most
governors and high officials spent a few minutes
now and then in compliments or allusions to home
politics, but Maitland never digressed in this way —
not even for the battle of Waterloo. But he did
once offer to get Lord Bathurst some maraschino
if he liked it good.

In the summer of 1815 Maitland took six weeks
casual leave, General Layard officiating as Lieutenant-
Governor in his absence. He attacked very little new
work in the course of this year. It was as much as
he could do to superintend the development of his
new arrangements for the purchase of corn, and keep
an eye on the working of his reconstituted Courts of
Justice. The tremendous events that were passing
on the continent of Europe were enough to hold even
Maitland's attention ; and he was contented to see that
his accounts balanced, and to wait for the new settle-
ment that must be impending. But he found time

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 165

to send two young Maltese of family to England for
their education. In commending them to Bathurst,
he begged that they might not be * treated with
that redundancy of attention ' that had befallen the
two Mudeliars whom he had, with the same good
object, sent'home from Ceylon — spoilt, in short. Ad-
ministration was one thing, and a very important
thing ; but as regards the character of the Maltese
there will be nothing done, he wrote, without a change
in the system of education. Young men would do
well to go to England ; all those, that is, who could
afford to do so. As regards the educational estab-
lishments in the island, he could only report that
'as every man has a right to be taught for
nothing, very few think it worth their while to
learn at all ; ' while the Greek College was an
actual nuisance.

But the principal object of his attention, and the
chief subject of his correspondence throughout the
year 18 15, was the rumoured retention by England
of the Ionian Islands. He was sounded on this point
as early as May ; and his first remark was that in
any such intended settlement of Mediterranean affairs,
it was much to be desired that there should be one
commander-in-chief for the Mediterranean, exclusive
of Gibraltar. He admitted that this suggestion com-
ing from him looked like a proposal for his personal
aggrandizement ; but could only trust that his known
zeal for the King's service would protect him from

i66 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

any such imputation. He calculated rightly, and his
suggestion was acted upon later.

As the months went by, and Maitland found him-
self face to face with the growing certainty of our
permanent occupation of the Seven Islands, he ex-
pressed himself as much perturbed at the prospect.
* I cannot look to the assumption of the sovereignty
of the Seven Islands without some dread,' he wrote in
September 1815 ; 'we shall find them very expensive
if we do not take care,' and the cheapest way to
govern them undoubtedly would be to double up the
governments of Malta and the Ionian Islands. If this
were done (as it was ultimately), he was of opinion
that the modest sum of ^1000 extra as yearly salary
for the new governor ought to suffice. It was now
becoming plain that he was being thought of for
the new post, and although communications on the
subject were still ' private and confidential,' he entered
more freely into details. ' As regards our new posses-
sions,' he wrote, 'a great deal should be done — and
nothing.' By this he meant that a great deal would
have to be done to set things going at all, but that the
ground was all so new and strange that we ought to
make it plain from the commencement that every-
thing was provisional. As regards * granting new
liberties,' he was strongly of opinion that we ought to
move slowly. It is difficult to draw back, but easy
enough to move on, if we only move cautiously.
By October it was practically settled that the new

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 167

government would be conferred on him. *As soon
as I receive official notice of my appointment I shall
proceed straight to Corfu, and from there to the other
islands.' Our difficulty at first would be nothing less
than a dilemma ; if we appoint too many Englishmen
there will be jealousy ; yet nothing is clearer than
that the government that we set up will succeed just
so far as it is administered by Englishmen, and no
farther. What that government will be it is impos-
sible to say, for, 'as the lonians have professed equal
attachment for all the powers that have ruled them in
turn, there will be a queer state of things to deal with.'
' Least of all can I think for a moment with temper
of anything like a representative government. We
tried that experiment in Sicily, and the result was
what one naturally would have expected where the
whole community was divided into two classes, viz.,
tyrants and slaves. Neither the one nor the other
are fitted to enjoy the blessings of a free govern-
ment. We may hereafter prepare them for it. In
the meantime, all we can do is to correct the abuses
that may exist, to rule them with moderation, and turn
their thoughts gradually to improvements that may be
made as tliey advance in their ideas, and in their
knowledge of true and sound policy.' Words of ex-
alted wisdom, which exactly describe what ought to
have been done. Nevertheless, it was representative
government that Maitland was ultimately commanded
to establish.

i68 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

'The experiment of Sicily,' he went on, *was
certainly a most unfortunate one, injurious to the
very thing it wished to establish, for it has gone
very far to convince all the considerate people in
this country that a free government is incompatible
with the existence of a strong one, they never dis-
covering that the fault lay not with the government,
but with the person who administered it.'

The ' experiment of Sicily ' was the work of Lord
William Bentinck, so Maitland could hardly be
expected to admire it ; and in fact it was not
admirable.

Nothing more definite was either said or settled
during the year 1815, and Maitland turned back to
the duties of his old charge, Malta. A very curious
embarrassment had recently been added to his duties ;
he had become the custodian of Savary, Duke of
Rovigo, who was immured at Malta, but was not
treated with harshness. He had succeeded Fouche
as chief of Napoleon's police, and had been con-
cerned in the restoration which preceded the
Hundred Days. He was a great inconvenience to
us, and was in the end allowed to escape. But
while under Maitland's care he was in much anxiety,
for his one belief was that his head was being
demanded at one and the same time by the
Bourbons on account of the murder of the Due
d'Enghien, and by the British Government on
account of the mysterious disappearance of young

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 169

Mr Bathurst at Hamburg in the year 1809. As a
matter of fact, we had no wish either for Savary's
head or for the information that he was daily and
with much eagerness offering to the governor as
the price of his safety. Maitland never saw him,
and paid him no attentions beyond those civilities
that were proper to so distinguished a prisoner. He
was far too busy to occupy himself with the scandals
of the secret police of Paris, and Savary's long and
damaging memorials were forwarded by him to
England without comment. The only point that
he concerned himself with was his prisoner's keep ;
he was anxious to be allowed to treat him well, and
not to charge him for his wine. But what was
really occupying his attention during the last month
of 1 8 15 was the attitude of the Barbary States.
There being some confusion there, he wrote, 'I
shall go and personally inspect the consulates. It
is not a pleasant journey, but things have to be set
right both with the pachas and with our consuls.'
He returned from his journey on the 7th of
December, and was relieved not to have to 'plague
Lord Bathurst' with any unsolved difficulties. But
difficulties there must be in the future. We shall
have to consider all these powers '(i) as powers
possessing sovereignty, but (2) as exercising that
sovereignty in a manner so totally discordant to
every recognised principle of civilised nations that
we are all bound to resist it.' Compulsory ransom

170 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

of Christian slaves ought at once to be insisted on by
all the Christian powers.

Sir Thomas Maitland laid himself open to criticism
in many ways. But in one respect he was unapproach-
able as an administrator : he paid precisely the same
attention to every one of his duties, both small and
great. To be born a Maitland was already so much
of human greatness, that no rank or dignity of em-
ployment could add to his natural importance. No
post could be beyond his merits, and no kind of work
beneath him. From the height of his pride of birth
all minor elevations disappeared in the level plain of
duty. Hence he was neither elated at being called to
perhaps the most difficult post in Europe, nor revolted
at being compelled to divide his attention between the
grave duties of Lord High Commissioner designate,
and the somewhat sordid difficulties attending the
reform of the public hospital of Malta. They were
both pieces of work in the King's service, for which
he had taken the King's pay ; and it behoved him to
turn out both in the best possible manner, as befitted
a Maitland. The actual condition of the public
hospital when the governor turned on it, with the
savage energy with which he always attacked an
abuse, was such that most governors would have
been well pleased to leave its reform to a capable
subordinate. But, if truth be told, Maitland had no
capable subordinates ; he did not encourage them.
He liked subordinates who were capable of nothing

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 171

but taking orders from himself. This gave colour
to his enemies' gibe that he surrounded himself with
sycophants ; and in feeble hands the habit would
doubtless have led to grave inconveniences. A man
who will delegate no fraction of his power must
needs do all the work himself, in which case it will
be badly done ; and the current of governing force
which ought to flow in a steady stream, fed from
many sources will end by spreading out into a delta
of ineffectual rills.

But not Napoleon himselt was a greater glutton
for work than Sir Thomas Maitland. He patrolled
the public hospital, inquired into the qualifications
of the surgeons and the capacity of their assistants ;
examined the patients and the visitors, studied the
regulations of the buildings, and then changed
everything. ' Formerly,' he wrote, * it was a scene
of filth and disorganisation more disgusting than
anything I have ever seen, and more in the nature
of a place of public resort than of a charitable in-
stitution for the cure of diseases. All the friends
of the patients and others were indiscriminately
admitted at all times into the hospital, and the
patients were allowed at all times to go forth out
of it ; and, in fact, it was neither more nor less
than an institution where, with the benefits of getting
a ticket, which they always could, the idle and
the profligate were living at the expense of govern-
ment.' The net result of his reforms was to

172 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

reduce the number of 'patients' by one-half.
This was his first piece of work in the year 1816.
His second was to make a fresh assault on the
Universita. Having practically suppressed it as a
body purveying corn for the island, he now at-
tacked the supply of cattle, macaroni, oil and ice,
in regard to all of which they pretended the right
to cater for the island. But this was beyond him
for the moment ; that gigantic ring of corruption
beat, for the moment, even the governor's energy.
It was with the energy of the recoil that he turned
on the judges, who chose this moment of discourage-
ment to demur to some new regulation touching
the law of evidence. Maitland sent for them most
gladly, and menacingly ordered them to do as they
were told. 'With firmness and steadiness in the
head of the government,' he wrote complacently
after the interview, ' I have no doubt they will
be brought into every measure that may be desir-
able.'

Rightly was Maitland nicknamed King Tom, for
no monarch ever acted with more entire freedom
from respect to other men's views when he thought
that the King's service would be advantaged by his
disregarding his orders. He had been straitly com-
manded not to leave Malta until the arrival of
Layard, as the officer on whom the Government
would devolve in Layard's absence was not com-
petent. Nevertheless, late in January 1816, he

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 173

announced his intention of going to Zante forthwith
in order to commence his tour of inspection, leaving
Anderson and Wood behind him to look after the
acting Lieutenant-Governor, ' who cannot do much
mischief in these few days.' That is, he was deter-
mined to do the identical thing that he was forbidden
to do. ' The King's service will suffer less by my
disobeying orders than by obeying them.' He there-
fore spent the spring of 18 16 in touring through the
seven islands that were soon to be his charge, leaving
behind him, however, a fervid memorandum on our
relations with Ali Pacha. Within the pacha's pro-
vince there was a small district that had always been
regarded as an outpost of Corfu. This mainland
possession took its name from the chief town, Parga,
a little fort and market, the cession of which was to
give rise to more fierce discussion, and to get Maitland
into more hot water than any other event of his
administration. It was upon the resident at Parga that
the duty of conducting our negotiations with Ali
Pacha would devolve : and the resident at Parga was
the only subordinate with whom Maitland in his long
career wrestled a fall and was thrown. The plaintiff
in the case De Bosset v. Maitland^ was a Swiss who
had entered the British service and had risen to the
rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. Decorated with the
Third Class of the Bath, we shall see later under what
circumstances — so flattering to himself, and so severely
reflecting on Maitland — he was made a K.H. Of

174 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

the post where De Bosset earned most of the ill-will
that produced his dismissal, Maitland wrote (before
he had any inkling of the man who would be ap-
pointed) : ' For this post anybody will do ; but
although I am indifferent to the individual filling
the post, I must insist on his being placed under my
control ! ' Maitland's enemies were never tired dwel-
ling on his anxiety to see everybody placed under his
control, but he gave (as always) plausible reasons for
his anxiety on this occasion. 'It is impossible to
imagine in England what strides gentlemen are apt
to take in remote situations, and when they have no
immediate control over them, of which indeed I have
seen enough from the general feelings of the consuls.'

On this occasion he deigned to expand his views
on the needs of the King's service which were im-
pelling him to disobey orders. The mass of intrigue
that was going on in the Ionian Islands as to the ap-
pointment of the Lord High Commissioner was, he
wrote, unimaginable. There was some sort of idea
that he was to be elected by the lonians. Frederick
North (Lord North, as they called him) was a
hot favourite. Lord Aberdeen was in the running
also ; but North had remarkable recommendations
for an Englishman. Not only was he a good Greek
scholar, but he spoke modern Greek fluently. More-
over, his domineering conscience had compelled him,
very early in life, to decide for himself which was
the true Church, and he had made (for an English-

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 175

man) the singular choice of the Orthodox Church.
Here were strong qualifications indeed. He was,
moreover, as we saw in Ceylon, a perfect gentle-
man, with engaging manners and a romantic and
sentimental nature. He was, perhaps, the most
gentlemanly and the most thoroughly incapable
colonial governor that England ever sent out to a
difficult situation. As Lord High Commissioner, a
scarecrow would have been more efficient. The
sooner the lonians had it brought home to them that
Thomas Maitland and not Frederick North was to
be their new ruler, the better for all concerned ;
especially for the King's service. So reasoned Mait-
land, as in the spring of 18 16 he betook himself
to Zante and reviewed the ground that was to
be the scene of his heaviest labours and his greatest
triumphs.

CHAPTER XII

THE IONIAN ISLANDS EARLY DIFFICULTIES

ANARCHY AND BANKRUPTCY OF THE ISLANDS

CONSTITUTION-MONGERING MAITLAND IS SPIED

UPON HIS REVENGE

The traveller in Verona may see in the Square of the
Burnt Houses a commemorative tablet with this in-
scription, —

// nome di questa piazza rammenta

U ultimo giorno di Venezia repuhlica.
Apr He 1797.
Those were the days when the young Napoleon
said, * Venice shall find me an Attila ; ' and when
the territory of Venice, island and mainland, were
portioned out among her invaders. Austria took the
mainland, and held it till Sadowa ; France took
the islands.

So fell the ancient Republic of Venice. She had
been wealthy, and perhaps greedy of wealth : but
she had never been greedy of territory. Towards
her neighbours she had maintained an attitude of
masterly inactivity, and was perhaps as much hated
on account of her selfish isolation as because her

176

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 177

government was worse than that of other States.
In one direction, however, she had been acquisitive,
and tenacious of her conquests. Her most lucrative
trade had always been with the East, and in order
to control the trade route through the Adriatic she
had annexed the Ionian Islands, and stoutly defended
them. For four hundred years they had been
Venetian ground.

But by the end of the eighteenth century the con-
ditions of trade had wholly changed. Venice was
no longer a first-rate power, and the Adriatic was
but a backwater. Why then should Buonaparte be
so eager to retain the Islands, and to leave to Austria
the wealthy provinces of the mainland ? It was
because he was scheming to make them the start-
ing point for his expedition to the East : an ex-
pedition that was to be not a business enterprise,
but a conquest, a second invasion of Alexander. To
serve this end the Ionian Islands were to be retained
by France as a nursery for her sailors and a refuge
for her fleets.

At the moment when he set his enterprise on foot,
the Mediterranean was clear of English ships, but
before the disorganised dockyards of Toulon could
come to his help, the English had made good the start
that they had lost. The battles of the Texel and St
Vincent set our fleets free, and the genius of Nelson
completed the ruin of France in the Mediterranean.
The Ionian Islands, a department of the French

M

178 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

Republic, were now beleaguered by hostile fleets.
Not, however, by English fleets, but by a joint flotilla
of Russians and Turks. The Russians had already
made a bid for a post that would give them some
influence in the Mediterranean by offering us their
support toils viribus during the American War in ex-
change for Minorca. They now hoped to do at least
as well for themselves in the Adriatic. But Turkey
looked on the derelict islands as properly belonging
to the Balkan Peninsula, where she was at that time
supreme. She considered herself the natural inheritor
of these waifs, as well as of the territory of Parga on
the mainland. The situation resulted in a compromise ;
and the two most despotic powers in the world agreed
to erect the Seven Islands into a republic. They
granted it a constitution which went by the name of
the Byzantine Constitution. This is probably the only
example of Turkey granting representative institu-
tions, if we except the constitution of Midhat Pacha.

The Byzantine Constitution would not work ; and
St Petersburg (not Byzantium) was appealed to to set
it in order. Again were modifications asked for ; the
constitution was re-drafted, and verbally approved by
the Czar Alexander as he was setting out for the
Tilsit campaign. When this campaign had been
fought, Russian influence might be considered on the
decline for a time. By a secret article of the treaty
that concluded it, the Islands were ceded to France.

This was the opening of Napoleon's third attempt

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 179

to break the chain of British communications. The
Islands were, one by one, occupied by English naval
and military forces, with the exception of Corfu.
Thus the authority to which Maitland succeeded
was twofold : in six of the islands it was the right
of conquest ; in the seventh it was cession under a
treaty.

This rapid and fragmentary survey of the history of
twenty years is necessary, if we would attain to any
measure of comprehension of Maitland's difficulties.
The eyes of all Europe were on him ; for all the
nations of Europe had coveted the Islands over which
he was now called to rule. The Islands were valued
for two reasons, firstly, because of the prescriptive
renown that they enjoyed while part of the dominions
of Venice ; secondly, because of the use to which it
was known that Napoleon had designed to put them
— a stepping-stone to India. Nor was that all. To
and fro for one hundred and fifty years, the tide of
British influence had ebbed and flowed in the Medi-
terranean. Our position at the Gates had proved
impregnable ; but beyond the Gates all was uncertain.
We had advanced to Minorca and retired — once,
twice, and thrice. We had proclaimed George
III. King of Corsica ; his kingdom had proved as
ephemeral as that of Theodore, who died a bankrupt,
having scheduled ' my Kingdom of Corsica ' as his
sole asset, and whose epitaph on the walls of St Anne's,
Soho, was written by Horace Walpole. Some such

i8o BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

fleeting memorandum seemed to be the destiny of all
our Mediterranean conquests. We occupied Egypt,
and returned it to the Sublime Porte. We occupied
Sicily, and handed it back to the Neapolitan Bourbons.
We had occupied Italian islands by the handful, and
evacuated them. Two only of our conquests remained
in our hands at the Great Peace. Malta had sur-
rendered to our arms after a blockade lasting two
years — a blockade so close that it was run by only
five ships throughout the entire period ; and the
ancient sovereignty of the Knights of St John of
Jerusalem; was succeeded by the government of a
crown colony. After a series of unparalleled vicissi-
tudes, the Ionian Islands had fallen most unexpectedly
into our hands. What was to be the fate of these
new possessions ? Was Corfu to be another Minorca,
and was Malta to go the way of Sicily ? Everything
depended on Maitland.

We must not fail to realise the immense im-
portance of the position at that time occupied by
England in the Mediterranean. French contemporary
essayists admitted, without any reserve, that England,
who at the commencement of the war of the
French Revolution held only the key to the inland
sea, now held in her hands, unchallenged, the Mastery
of the Mediterranean. It was no idle phrase. There
was, of course, no such power as Italy. France
was prostrate and Spain no more formidable than she
is. now The posts that we held were undoubtedly

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND i8i

far stronger than any that we had relinquished. Nor
was that all. To-day, European powers have settled
in force along the African shore of the sea, and
Russia has pushed very near to the Bosphorus. In
Maitland's day Turkey was vastly stronger than she
is at present, and no single Christian power held
a square mile of territory on the southern shores
of the sea. To-day, we are but one strong power
among several : three-quarters of a century ago we
had no rival and no appearance of a rival.

Some estimate can now be formed of the im-
portance of Maitland's post as Governor of Malta
and Lord High Commissioner of the Ionian Islands,
and of the difficulties inherent in the heavy two-
fold duties thrown upon him. These difficulties were
more than doubled by the character of the people
with whom he had to deal, and by the obligation
laid upon him by the Treaty of Paris to govern
the Islands constitutionally. If we would in any
way realise them, we must do as Maitland did, and
examine (although not necessarily so thoroughly)
some incidents of the twenty years of history that
closed with the surrender of Corfu.

Venice had held the lonians * in the most abject state
of slavery and ignorance.' This was to the advan-
tage of Venice ; the lonians were thus more easily
governed. The rule of Venice had been succeeded
by a fleeting moment of French domination, followed
by the grotesque joint government of Russia and

i82 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

Turkey. Under the agreement between these two
remarkable allies, Turkey was recognised as the
Suzerain of the Islands ; but Russia furnished the
garrison. The suzerainty of Turkey was not for-
mally abrogated until Maitland brought it about ; and
it was understood that the mainland territories of
Venice — Parga and the surrounding country — were
to become definitely Turkish. Whether this meant
that they were to be surrendered to the Sublime Porte,
or to the local governor — the powerful vazir, AH
Pacha — made one of the stormiest questions of the
day. How much respect was paid to this conven-
tion was shown when Russia, from the vantage
ground of Corfu (Turkish territory), made war on
Ali Pacha — a Turkish governor. How the lonians
understood their position may be gathered from
their description of Count Mocenigo as 'the en-
lightened minister our countryman, the faithful in-
terpreter of his generous Sovereign's magnanimous
intentions.' As ' our countryman ' must needs be,
like his fellow-countrymen, a Turkish subject, one
would suppose that ' his generous Sovereign ' here
referred to was the Sultan. By no means ; it was
the Czar. But this is only the beginning of the
absurdities of the situation. Count Mocenigo left
Corfu as Minister Plenipotentiary at St Petersburg.
He was charged with the duty of asking for a con-
stitution. But he was to make no suggestions ; he
was to accept everything unquestioningly from the

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 183

* adorable hand of Alexander.' He left as an Ionian,
he returned as a Russian, the Minister Plenipo-
tentiary of the Czar to the Ionian Islands. From
the moment of his return he always referred to the
Czar as *my august master.' He commanded the
senate to drop a bill that he considered to be op-
posed to * the will of the Sovereign.' He issued his
instructions, in fact, like a Russian governor. Con-
fusion of ideas could hardly go further. Yet when
the constitution broke down, it was to Turkey that
application was made to set matters straight. The
Suzerain rose to the occasion and issued a thunder-
ing firman, in which he threatened the most severe
punishment to the unruly. What the * adorable
Alexander' thought of the firman is not recorded,
but no protest was issued against it ; indeed, it was
a perfectly regular act. But with two sovereigns,
a Russian army ashore, a Turkish fleet at sea, a
couple of constitutions, both crazy, to choose from,
and nothing more luminous to guide them than the
traditions of Venice, it is not to be wondered at that,
as Plato Petrides reported, 'the nation had fallen
into the last state of passive vegetation.' Capo-
distrias, the Secretary of State, described the country
as completely disorganised, and unfit to stand alone.
But * passive ' was hardly a proper description of the
Ionian character ; they were a very fierce and pas-
sionate people, and the unique combination of a
highly intelligent population seething with angry

1 84 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

passions, and completely emancipated from authority,
produced some horribly grotesque incidents. There
were several cases discovered (and probably many
undiscovered) w^here a w^ould-be murderer, having
marked down his victim, betook himself to the judge.
Not, however, with the object of making confession,
in order that he might be restrained from his hate-
ful crime, but with the object of striking a bargain.
The man was to die ; for how much then would
the judge undertake to deliver a verdict of not guilty.
The bargain once struck, the murderer went his way,
knifed his man, and then gave himself up to ' justice.'
A country in which such incidents were possible can
hardly be said to have emerged from the first stage
of savagery. Yet it would be most unfair to the
lonians to lay on them the blame of their country's
disorder. That freedom and independence are plants
of slow growth is the most commonplace of plati-
tudes ; and what chance had the miserable lonians
ever had of developing either their national character
or their national institutions ? Among the arts in
which the world will long remain the humble pupil
of Venice, the art of government has no place. Her
methods of government may furnish periods to orators
and plots to grand opera, but to live under them
must have been debasing and humiliating beyond
conception.

But although we may sincerely commiserate the
lonians for their misfortunes, we must not conceal

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 185

the fact that their misfortunes had, in point of fact,
told most lamentably on their character. Even to
have ruled the Islands as a non-regulation province
would have taxed the courage and resources of the
most capable Lieutenant-Governor that England ever
sent to the East. To ask Maitland to rule them under
a constitution conferring representative government on
the people, was to ask him to perform a sheer and
ludicrous impossibility. There was nothing to work
on. 'The character most dreaded and detested in all
these countries is that of an honest and upright man.
They equally detest an honest government. They
neither understand nor appreciate a fair, open and
manly part.' * " Liberty and independence " means
independence of all judicial proceedings, and liberty
of plundering their country.' * Such is the inveterate
propensity to venality and corruption on all hands,
that they consider being employed under government
as a trust delegated to them for no other purpose but
to make the most of it for their private interests.'

This is an unpromising beginning ; but Maitland
was resolved to make it perfectly plain that he was
being called upon to clean an Augean stable. He
therefore wrote more in detail to Lord Bathurst,
showing quite clearly what manner of duty he was
now being called upon to face.

Speaking of the nobles, he wrote, ' If we look at
the characters of the rulers here, we find them ever
bending to the power of the day, taking new oaths to

1 86 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN *

their new masters with the same fulsome civility they
obeyed their old ones, rescinding this hour what they
had done the last, and looking at no one thing but
how, at the expense of character, of honour and of
integrity, they are to maintain themselves in the
degraded situation in which they are placed.' This
is severe indeed, but hardly more than a bare recital
of facts. Somewhat more critical is this passage,
* One of the radical faults that pervades all classes
here is the idea they entertain of making a consti-
tution : they do not hold this by any manner of means
to be laying down fundamental principles of govern-
ment binding upon all, immutable in themselves, and
made solely for the benefit of all, but they consider it
eternally connected with the executive government,
the smallest portion of which, if they retain in their
own hands, they think the constitution is good ; but
if not, they think it equally bad, and are ripe for any
novelty. They consider it not as tending to give
security to all, but as tending to benefit themselves ;
and, in fact, consider and look at nothing else but
personal aggrandizement at the expense of the in-
terests of the rest of the community.' ' If we gave
such a people a real constitution, they would simply
violate it from day to day.'

Maitland then added a weighty comment, which,
while it tended to excuse the lonians, also added
materially to our own perplexities. ' Every promise,'
he said, ' every promise that has been made since the

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 187

fall of V enice has been made but to deceive. They
therefore believe nothing that is said to them. They
will assent to any constitution, but they will look upon
it as a mere juggle.' Nor would they even believe
that our hands were clean the while, for there was
little doubt that both Mocenigo and the French had
made considerable fortunes out of their dealings with
public affairs.

Capodistrias had stated with perfect plainness his
own opinion that there was no chance of governing
the Islands successfully except through the medium of
a large armed force. By a ' large armed force ' he
meant 14,000 troops and a fleet of 36 sail. This
was the force that the Russian government
kept up in the Islands as late as the date of
the Treaty of Tilsit, 1807. This was the force
that enabled them to defy the remonstrances of
the Porte and abrogate the Byzantine Constitution
in favour of Mocenigo's. The impotence of the
Porte in the face of so great a display of the military
so enraged them that they gladly gave Sebastiani an
undertaking to recognise the Islands as part of the
French Empire. All that was now ancient history;
but the impression remained that no government was
possible unless resting on the support of an army of
this size. It is hardly necessary to say that Maitland
never had an army approaching this size under his
command. The troops of all arms with the colours
numbered 4260 only on the 28th of September 181 7.

i88 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

This was about the average strength of the army
in the two garrisons of Malta and Corfu, although
Maitland himself said that they ought never to fall
below 6000.

We have, then, to observe that the internal
difficulties which had baffled all his predecessors in
their efforts to maintain a stable government had
been partially overcome by the display of a great
armed force, and even that resource was taken
away from Maitland. There was another difficulty
which applied to him alone, that will be noticed in
its place ; a difficulty greater than all the others put
together. But leaving that out of the question for
the moment, the simple conclusion of contemporaries
was that we were attempting the impossible.

On the 29th of November 18 16, Maitland issued
his first proclamation to the Ionian people. He an-
nounced that he would do his best to fulfil the wishes
of the Allied Powers, and further the welfare of the
lonians. He should immediately proceed to draft a
constitution ; and in order to give an idea of what it
would be, he reviewed the various constitutions under
which the lonians had dwelt in the preceding twenty
years. Nothing, he said, would induce him to revive
the government (if it could be so called) of Venice.
Here we must pause and read between the lines.
This allusion to Venice was Maitland's silent but very
plain menace to the nobles. It was under the rule of
Venice that they had attained to complete authority,

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 189

and shared the plunder of the Islands. Their power
was unlimited, and — chiefly in consequence of their
corrupt influence over the Courts of Justice — un-
shakable. When Venice fell, the nobles had been
set to guard the trees of liberty erected by the
French. But they had rapidly regained their power ;
and all the disturbances of the last twenty years had
their origin in blundering attempts to take it away
from them, and in their own stubborn resolve to
preserve it. Maitland, in his first proclamation, thus
gave them to understand that he would not endure
their usurpations. He next reviewed the other con-
stitutions, examined the causes of their failure, and
finally announced that he should take Mocenigo's
constitution of 1803 as the basis of his own.

At this time Mocenigo was in Naples with Capo-
distrias. He dined with A'Court, our minister there.
A*Court opened the subject of Maitland's proclama-
tion as one likely to interest his guests, and said that
perhaps they might like to know its purport and
the manner in which it had been received in
Corfu. Mocenigo smiled, and assured A'Court that
he was very well pleased with its tenour ; but he
knew his countrymen, he added ; and then, with a
shrug, ' If General Maitland expects to keep them in
good humour for any length of time, he will be
greatly disappointed.' A'Court was a good deal taken
aback. But Mocenigo was pleasantly frank, and had
no objection to A'Court knowing that he had had

190 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

Maitland's despatch opened and detained on the road,
and a copy forwarded to him before the original went
to the ambassador. His information was thus several
days ahead of A'Court's.

Thus was Maitland from the outset brought face
to face with his greatest difficulty. This was the
elaborate network of intrigue and spying with which
he was surrounded. Nobody could be trusted ; not
even his own couriers, or the couriers of foreign States.
Everywhere there were Ionian agents working to
supply the nobles and their party with secret inform-
ation. But they little knew the resolute man with
whom they were dealing. If they could mine,
Maitland could countermine. If they opened his
letters, he opened theirs ; and in this contest he had
a notable advantage. For a single hint was enough
to let him know where his enemies were, of whom he
should beware, and how he could baffle them. And
he was in power, and could dispose of good things. A
single intercepted letter gave him the key to the
whole intrigue. 'I will soon find out w^hat this
Maitland is like, and then I will let you know what
I make of him for His Majesty's information.' His
Majesty was the Czar Alexander; the writer of the
letter was old Capodistrias, and it was addressed to
Count John Capodistrias, the Russian Secretary of
State. Alexander's share in the business appears to
have been greatly exaggerated. He did indeed write
autograph letters of recommendation for Capodistrias,

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 191

letters which gave the Cabinet infinite trouble, and (to
some members of it) no small anxiety. But there his
interest ceased, or appears to have done so. Never-
theless * the Russian party,' with old Capodistrias as its
centre in Corfu, and John Capodistrias as its powerful
agent abroad, was, throughout Maitland's administra-
tion, his greatest anxiety. Having got the clue, he
speedily made use of it. Henceforth, when one of
the Russian party paid a visit to the palace he was
received with overwhelming civility, and numerous
posts were pressed on him. But the civility was
impenetrable, and the posts were always uninfluential.
When other posts were applied for, the application was
most favourably received ; but there was generally a
hitch sooner or later, and the post went to someone
else. Earlier in the year, Maitland had not hesitated
to dismiss, without the slightest ceremony, no fewer
than four senators and the secretary, who forthwith
posed as martyrs in the cause of Ionian liberty.
* Martyrs ! * wrote the Lord High, ' corrupt and
insufferable intriguers.'

So, one by one, and occasionally in batches, the
Capodistrians were edged out of the good things and
condemned to inaction. No wonder they raged
secretly but not silently, for the good things were
many, and Maitland gave them all to their enemies.
No wonder that a sort of gunpowder plot was dis-
covered, the object of which was to annihilate Mait-
land. It was not really a plot, but it was disclosed,

192 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

half hatched, to the Lord High Commissioner, ap-
parently with the intention of shaking his nerves.
From the beginning he expressed his total incredu-
lity of the whole story. The officer who discovered
the ' plot ' was given clearly to understand that run-
ning with the hare and hunting with the hounds
was not what Maitland approved. He was to get
his reward from the Capodistrians for managing the
details, and from Maitland for disclosing them.
Whatever he got from his first employers, he got
nothing from government except a clear intimation
that he was seen through, and had better not try
the same thing again. Gradually the Ionian nobles
began to confess to themselves and each other, raging
the while, that they had found their master. Not
Russian admiral, nor Turkish pacha, nor Imperial
marshal, nor (in the old days) Venetian provveditore,
had been so hard to deal with. In fact, there was no
dealing with him. The only course to pursue was to
obey him, or else retire into private life. It soon be-
came plainly advantageous to keep in with the Lord
High. Already the constitution was under weigh.
Already there were rumours of a new Order of
Knighthood.

Disaffection, or as Maitland adroitly put it in his pro-
clamation, ' opposition to the Treaty of Paris,' rapidly
subsided. There came a short period of hesitation,
and then, as he scornfully wrote, ' it has become a
race which of them can run fastest into our arms.'

CHAPTER XIII

THE IONIAN ISLANDS THE CONSTITUTION EXTREME

COMPLEXITY OF THE SITUATION RATIFICATION

OF THE CONSTITUTION THE MOST DISTINGUISHED

ORDER OF ST MICHAEL AND ST GEORGE

This was a favourable moment for the promulgation
of the constitution, that famous instrument whose
only function was to throw a decent veil over the
despotism of Thomas Maitland. His instructions
were to govern under a constitution ; instructions
which carried contradiction in every line. It was
not that the lonians were actually ungovernable.
They were not more so than, for example, the
Afghans, who, under the personal rule of a genius,
make comparatively good subjects. It was that
no constitution hitherto set going in the Islands
would work. Nothing would have been easier
than to draft a fresh instrument of government,
conferring, say, the limited franchise that subsisted
in England before the first Reform Bill. The
heads of the noble houses would have made a re-
spectable House of Lords. The power of voting
money would have been restricted, of course, to

N

194 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

the Commons, and patronage would have been taken
out of the hands of the Lord High Commissioner, and
vested in his * Cabinet.'

This would have been an easy course to pursue,
and it would have had immediate and valuable
results. It would have quieted Brougham and
Hume and the Radicals, together with 'that worst
of Radicals, Capodistrias,' as Maitland called him.
Moreover, it would have worked for, at the out-
side, six months, at the end of which time we
should have had to send an army corps to Corfu
to restore order. Martial law would have been
proclaimed, and the signatories of the Treaty of
Paris would have been called together to reconsider
the treaty. The clause providing for a constitu-
tion would have been abrogated, and the- Seven
Islands turned into a crown colony. This would
have been better for everybody concerned, as Mait-
land told the lonians. They had caused several
applications to be made to him for assistance from
England, and he had at once pointed out to them
how much they had lost by their constitution. 'If
you had been a crown colony,' he said, 'you might
have drawn on the British treasury, but as you
are an " independent republic," you must forego
that advantage.' But to be at once ' independent '
and dependent was exactly what the lonians were
seeking. Maitland, for his part, was perfectly
contented, so long as the King was well served,

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 195

and he himself remained in effect a despot, two
conditions that he regarded, and probably with
reason, as inseparable. However audacious his
' constitution ' may appear to us to-day, there re-
mains this very cogent fact, that Capodistrias,
from his great position as Russian Secretary of
State, and availing himself of the personal recom-
mendation of his imperial master, dragged Maitland's
proceedings into the light of day. He angrily and
unscrupulously arraigned them, and was patiently
and laboriously answered by Castlereagh himself.
The Lord High Commissioner was conclusively
shown to have kept strictly within his powers
under the treaty. A still better justification,
although one that probably made no appeal to
Capodistrias, was furnished by the magnificent
results of his labours.

Turning aside, then, from the tempting course of
drafting a real constitution — the failure of which
would have made a fine appeal to his grim and
cynical temper — he summoned a Primary Council.
This, as he was careful to point out, was the
precedent set by the Russians. When we say
* summoned,' we should perhaps be better to say
'nominated.' In fact he called together ten magnifi-
coes whom he knew to be well-afFected, or whom
he bought with promises (and of whom he could
feel comparatively sure), and took them into his
confidence. Nominally they were deliberating on

196 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

the constitution ; practically they were reading over
Maitland's draft and altering it at their peril.
They sat under a president, an officer who
formerly enjoyed the title of prince, but until the
constitution was passed he was not ' Your High-
ness ; ' he was only * my dear sir,' or at best ' dear
baron.' Maitland, as the fountain of honour,
recognised no distinctions that did not flow from
himself. The Primary Council were to be ex-officio
members of the Legislative Assembly. By this
ingenious device the Lord High Commissioner at
once secured eleven votes in the Lower House, the
total number of whose members was only forty.
The twenty- nine remaining seats were to be filled
by members elected by the Seven Islands pro-
portionately to their population. But they were to
be elected from lists of eligible members drawn up
by the Primary Council ; so a considerable control
was exercised over the whole of the Lower House.
The Upper House was elected by the Lower, but
the Lord High Commissioner could veto any
senator and order a fresh choice. If he vetoed the
second choice, he must within twenty-four hours send
down the names of two men of whom he approved
as senators, and from these two the Lower House
must make their choice, which would be final.

In his address to the Primary Council, Maitland
gave a fairly broad hint of how much discretion he
expected them to exercise. The first clause of the

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 197

Treaty of Paris relative to these Islands describes
the Ionian Islands as a single, free and independent
State. But the appointment of a Lord High Com-
missioner takes that away. *If there be any per-
sons,' he continued, 'whatever who can entertain
a different feeling upon this subject, to such I
can only say that all discussion of every kind with
them must be totally useless.' To Lord Bathurst
he wrote that it did not really matter what sort
of a constitution was set up, so long as it prevented
the lonians from 'running wild.' The difficulty
would be not to get the constitution passed, but to
establish the practice under the constitution, as the
Ionian 'duplicity, chicanery and want of principle
cannot be exaggerated.' He was almost as plain
spoken to the Primary Council. To the poor, he
said, who should be the special care of the govern-
ment (this was another hint to the nobles that they
would no longer fatten on the spoils of the State),
it matters nothing what system of administration be
set up. But it is of the first importance that the
administration of justice should be sound and speedy.
Therefore (and Maitland's language menacingly
underlined the conclusion), the judges must no
longer be appointed by election. Instead of the
electors choosing the judges, the Lord High Com-
missioner will nominate them.

Very wide powers were given to the senators.
They could nominate the regents of the Islands, very

198 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

important officers. They could initiate legislative
measures. They could conditionally arrest the pro-
gress of bills in the Lower House, and could also
negative bills altogether. As the senate was only
another name for the Lord High Commissioner, we
can now arrive at some notion of the extent of power
that Maitland reserved to himself. All the machinery
of representative government was there : Upper
House, Lower House, elective system and five-yearly
parliaments. But this was only a pageantry : nothing
could really move except by the will of the Lord High
Commissioner, who was, in addition, commander-in-
chief of the King's troops in the Islands and in Malta,
as well as governor of the latter island. If there was
ever a more absolute monarch on earth, it would be
the Rajah of Sarawak.

Although from Maitland's emphatic and audacious
language we might perhaps suppose that he was given
to settling important matters in too great haste, we
should make a great mistake if we rested in that con-
clusion. In dealing with the lonians he did not, it is
true, waste words. But he only dealt with the lonians
after he had most laboriously and in inconceivable
detail recounted to the Secretary of State the grounds
of his conclusions, and had made sure that his con-
clusions were approved of. 'Though I will not
intrude upon your lordship with any opinion of my
own,' he wrote to Lord Bathurst, 'it is but fair I
should state it as a positive fact that I never have

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 199

yet seen or conversed with any man here, either of
consideration or of common talents, who does not at
once acknowledge that they are not in that state of
society that fits them either for a free constitution or
for being left to themselves under any government
of any kind.' Maitland's enemies said that he never
listened to any man who did not flatter him ; and that
it was very well understood that he would listen to
nothing that he did not want to hear. So it will be
valuable to recall this passage, and compare it with
what the lonians themselves said. We shall be able
to do this with better effect when we come to Capo-
distrias's assault on Maitland, and Castlereagh's defence
of him. Continuing this view, however, Maitland
went on, *I have no difliculty in stating to your
lordship that under all the circumstances of the
situation — looking at it in every point of view (and
I believe many of the most sensible men in these
Islands concur with me), that it would have been
infinitely more for their benefit and advantage had
they at once been made colonies to England than
left as they are by the Treaty of Paris. This, how-
ever, was impossible to be done under the treaty — we
had therefore only to endeavour to give them a
constitution which could enable us to assure them for
the present a better state and condition than they
hitherto had been placed in at any former period,
leaving it in our power to alter and amend it as we
might deem advisable — but not placing in their

200 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

hands any such power — and this your lordship will
perceive is effectually done by the reserving clauses
relative to the judicial establishment in the chapter
of justice.'

On the general principles that had guided him,
he wrote as follows, ' I have always considered the
Treaty of Paris as a treaty made between Russia
and England for the benefit of the Ionian people, and
though, in fact, the other great powers were stiled
principals upon the occasion, that in truth they were
mere accessories to that treaty.

' The principal upon which I understand the treaty
to have been bottomed was the feeling on the one
hand that the Emperor Alexander was anxious to
repair the unfortunate state in which he had been in
some degree the means of placing them, from the
necessity he was under of signing the Treaty of Tilsit,
and, on the other, a wish to replace them in the
condition in which they stood with regard to their
liberty and independence antecedent to that calamitous
treaty. If I am correct in this, and if it be true that
such was the real object of that treaty, it naturally
follows that if we did give to them either a better
regulated system of government, or an extension of
liberty and security they never before possessed, that
we had fulfilled both in the letter and spirit the obli-
gation we had entered into with Russia, and that that
Court, at least, could not have the smallest pretence
for saying that we had stretched the power granted to

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 201

us as a protecting sovereignty under the Treaty of
Paris. I am fully persuaded that it is unnecessary for
me to explain to your lordship the grounds upon
which I maintain we have done both the one and the
other. It would be a mere recapitulation of what I
have said in my address to the Primary Council, but
I am sure your lordship will agree with me in this
general and incontrovertible sentiment, that definite
power, however extensive, is a lesser evil in any State
than power alike undefined and uncontrolled.'

There will be many to agree with Maitland's con-
clusion ; there were many when he wrote. But we
would hardly say that it is a * general and incon-
trovertible sentiment ' ; and it would have filled the
sentimental 'friend of the people,' the Maitland of
1794, with a holy horror.

After dwelling on the very extensive powers that
he had reserved to himself, he pointed out that the
lonians would always remain subject ' not to the will
of a despot, not to the change from Paul to Alexander,
but to the constitutional laws and practices of our
kingdom.'

As regards the lonians, there was among them * no
considerate man who does not acknowledge that no
government could ever exist in these Islands without
a constant interference of the protecting power,' al-
though it was true that 'the words liberty and in-
dependence conveyed to their irritable minds an idea
that they could once more open all those seeds of

202 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

discord and dissension which had so frequently un-
happily tended to their misery and destruction.'

Perhaps those ' seeds ' might be * opened ' in the
future ; but there was little to fear from that, ' for
we can always give more to those who go with
us than they can possibly expect to gain if they go
against us.'

The provision of the constitution which he most
feared to see attacked was that relating to the double
list of candidates. On this point he related an
anecdote. 'In 1806 they tried to alter it — and
what was the consequence ? that finding a set of men
elected the most unfit in the country, they took away
the balloting boxes from the place of election ; the
person entrusted with the business arranged the
balls according to the list he had got from the
plenipotentiary, and next day produced the balloting
boxes — so arranged ; and declared the election ac-
cordingly, a measure undoubtedly infinitely more
destructive of any idea of liberty than any restriction
that could have been laid down — and the disgraceful
notoriety of this fact was the sole reason why I did
not specify it in the Primary Council.'

He concluded his report to Lord Bathurst with an
expression of his hope that the constitution, though
not ideal, might be found to be workable, and a
stepping-stone to a better state of things.

This constitution was ratified in the throne room
of the Pavilion at Brighton by the Prince Regent

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 203

on the 26th of August 181 7. It was Maitland's
most considerable achievement, although not that
which lasted the longest. It remained in operation
until 1 849, and was even to the end of our occupation
the mainspring of the government ; for some of its
provisions, inadvertently retained when the constitu-
tion was remodelled, were the only means by which
the government could be kept going. But to Mait-
land's successors it proved a veritable bow of Ulysses.
Even the rapid sketch that has here been given of
its provisions must suffice to show what exceptional
qualities were needed to work it effectively.
Maitland's invincible energy, impeccable knowledge
of men and single-minded devotion to his duty,
enabled him to work wonders under it. He stopped
leakages of public money, wiped out the deficit, and
rolled up a surplus. He scared the nobles into good
behaviour, and utterly routed a far more formidable
conspiracy than his successors ever faced. He kept
the island steady, while the mainland on both sides,
the Morea and Naples, was heaving in revolution.
The common people arose and blessed his name :
for they tasted daily of the consolations of justice
impartially administered. But what happened after
Maitland is painful to recall. Fortunately it lies
outside the scope of this biography.

An attempt has here been made to do something
like justice to Maitland's admirable work over the
Ionian constitution. We must not shrink from

204 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

reviewing the unpleasant story of his persecution of
De Bosset : it is, on the whole, the most painful
incident of his career. We saw that in the year
1794 Maitland made one of the few speeches that
appear to have been prompted by genuine personal
feeling — his speech on the enlistment of ' foreigners,'
for whom he always had a John Bullish hatred.
Later on, I ventured the statement that he often
fell to quarrelling out of sheer ennui. The two
moods jumped together in his persecution of De
Bosset. He had had enough of constitution draft-
ing, and he turned to quarrelling as a delasse-menty
having no other resources. There was a good sub-
ject ready to his hand. De Bosset was a Swiss
gentleman who had seen twenty-one years' service
in the British army, and had attained the rank
of lieutenant - colonel. On the reorganization of
the Order of the Bath he had been decorated with
the third class of the military Order. At the con-
clusion of peace he was sent out to the Ionian
Islands as Resident in Cephalonia. He was
then despatched on special duty to Lebeda, the
ancient Ptolemoea Leptis, to superintend the de-
spatch to England of some monuments of an-
tiquity ; but was recalled before he could complete
his work, and appointed inspector of militia in the
Ionian Islands. He arrived on this duty on the
30th of January 18 17. On the 17th of March he
was despatched in great haste to Parga with a re-

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 205

inforcement of 300 men for the garrison, but again
recalled within three months. He was then ordered
on special duty, to which, for reasons given, he
demurred, and was promptly deprived of his com-
mission, and his services dispensed with by pro-
clamation.

This treatment would be enough of itself to
show Maitland's animus. He knew well enough,
being one of the most successful administrators that
England ever possessed, that the grand secret of
good administrative work is not to harry your sub-
ordinates. Any man not fundamentally incom-
petent can with assiduity master the duties of his
post if he is left long enough in it. But the most
brilliant man if incessantly moved about will always
find his work beyond him ; and five such different
appointments in the short space of two years were
enough to bewilder De Bosset, who was only a
simple soldier, with no pretensions to any but quite
ordinary abilities.

Unfortunately there was much stronger direct
evidence that Maitland meant to drive De Bosset out
of Corfu. De Bosset reported himself to the Lord
High Commissioner, and was immediately invited to
dinner, and afterwards, on the 6th of February 181 7,
to a ball. In the ball-room Maitland pointedly and
deliberately approached the colonel ; and the other
guests fell away out of respect and left His
Excellency and his victim face to face, with no one

2o6 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

within earshot. Hence we have only De Bosset's
word for what followed. But there are such volumes
of evidence on the whole case, and De Bosset's word
was so continually and fully substantiated, that we can-
not avoid noticing his account of this short interview,
and indeed it is only too likely a story. * Colonel
De Bosset,' said the great man, ' I am very glad to
welcome you to Corfu, and to say that I think you
had much better go away. You have many enemies
here, and you would do better if you went away as
soon as possible.' The unhappy man could only
stammer incoherently in reply to so fierce an assault ;
whereupon Maitland, smilingly and ingratiatingly,
with every possible mark of affectionate attention,
repeated his menace. De Bosset could only bow, and
leave the ball. Next morning he called on the
military secretary and asked what it all meant.
After so broad a hint, he said, there was nothing
to do except to go. Perhaps the Lord High Com-
missioner had some plan to that end that he might
fall in with. But Hankey would not help him.
There was nothing in it all, he said ; everybody had
noticed how drunk His Excellency was, no doubt he
had forgotten all about it by now. But no man in
De Bosset's position could rest satisfied with such an
answer. ' It may be,' he replied, ' that His Excellency
was drunk, although personally I cannot think it.
His speech was quite plain, startlingly plain, and no
drunken man could so command his features as to

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 207

threaten me with ruin while apparently he was over-
whelming me with compliments.'

But Hanlcey stood by his chief. Sir Thomas was
drunk, and there was an end of it. * Granted, then,'
said De Bosset, * since you will have it, that His
Excellency was drunk, there still remains a proverb
that you will be acquainted with, and that I take
leave to remind you of, in vino Veritas : and there is
the question to which I have received no answer —
How am I to go away ? ' It is to be presumed that
the military secretary had his cue, for he would say
nothing. It was not Maitland's intention that De
Bosset should be honourably retired ; he meant to
expel him ignominiously. When this had been
achieved, and the quarrel thus artistically rounded
off, the unhappy man made his way to England and
waited on the Duke of York. * Nobody,' said His
Royal Highness, 'could take away an officer's com-
mission except His Majesty, and the colonel might
rely upon his assurance as commander-in-chief that
this would not be done without the fullest in-
vestigation.'

The investigation went in De Bosset's favour.
He had been deprived of his travelling allowance ;
he was granted two months' pay in lieu of the
same by special order from the Horse - Guards ;
he was provided for on the half- pay list. It
became increasingly clear that he had been shame-
fully bullied, and in April 181 8 he was created a

2o8 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

Knight of the newly-established Guelphic Order of
Hanover 'for distinguished service in the Medi-
terranean, particularly in the Ionian Islands and
Parga.' It w^as hardly possible to convey more dis-
tinctly to Maitland that his conduct vi^as thoroughly
disapproved of. In the meantime, Maitland's justifica-
tion of himself vvras called for. It came at great
length, and contains much of 'the workings of an
ill-regulated mind,' 'disappointment of exaggerated
pretensions,' 'total contempt of decorum,' 'disregard
of facts,' and so on. De Bosset was not referred to
except as 'this fellow,' or 'this person.' This is
mere abuse, and there is a curious passage about
Lebeda which shows as clearly as possible what a
weak case Maitland had. 'The truth is (and I
ought perhaps to be ashamed to confess it), that the
research for monuments of ancient sculpture never
has been to me, personally, an object of the smallest
moment.' This is very ingenuous and winning; but
as Maitland's taste was not in question, it is totally
irrelevant: in fact, he was shirking the point. The
report was not well received; and De Bosset was
given to understand that his military reputation
and his general conduct met with the approval of
the commander-in-chief; but that Maitland was,
in point of fact, indispensable. The matter did not
end here; but although this painful incident could
not in honesty be passed over, it is hardly necessary
to dwell longer on it. The same year that saw De

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 209

Bosset made a K.H. saw Maitland decorated with
his second star, the Grand Cross of the same Order ;
and he was soon deep in his great design for creat-
ing a new Order of Knighthood.

In the matter of De Bosset, Maitland cut a sorry-
figure. In the matter of the most distinguished
Order of St Michael and St George, he cut a very-
grand figure indeed. Yet in the negotiations lead-
ing to its foundation he has so written himself down
that we would gladly see the correspondence de-
stroyed. ^ But it is all a matter of history by now,
and as it is no part of the duty of a biographer to
make agreeable selections from his subject's work,
we must needs drag ourselves wearily through this
long negotiation.

The Order was first suggested as a means for
rewarding the services of distinguished lonians. That
being accorded, Maitland proposed to extend it so as
to include the Maltese. The sticklers for precedent
were all opposed to this measure, as it would set
a precedent for inhabitants of other colonies receiv-
ing decorations, which was too irregular to be
thought of. This was exactly the precedent that
Maitland hoped he should set, and exactly what has
happened. The Order of St Michael and St George
has grown into the great Order of civil merit for
the whole of the British Empire ; the Indian Orders
seem comparatively provincial by the side of it.
Perhaps Maitland knew his audience too well to

o

2IO BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

indulge in so wild a speculation. Be that as it
may, he took much lower ground, but ground on
which he was perfectly safe. 'As regards Malta,'
he wrote, 'the whole point is that this is the only
colony of the British Empire where we have suc-
ceeded to an actual sovereignty. Hence we live
here surrounded by an atmosphere of stars and
ribbands,' and the only Maltese who go un decorated
are those who are faithful to their King. There
was no opposing this argument, and Malta was in-
cluded as a concession.

The next point was the constitution of the Order.
Until the re-constitution of the Bath, English Orders
had always been of one class. That would never do
here, he wrote; the whole point was to make a man
think that he was better than his neighbour, so it
was decided that there should be three classes of the
Order. The next point was the name. It was first
proposed that the order should be called the Order
of St Spiridion. That was all very well, he wrote,
as regarded the Ionian Isles ; but the saint was not
'in such high feather' in Malta. The same diffi-
culty would arise if a Maltese saint were selected ;
the Corfiotes would not feel complimented. In fact,
the two hagiologies were at daggers drawn, and we
must find a saint who was equally considered both in
the Orthodox and the Roman Church. How would
it be if we took the old Order of St John of Jerusalem
without the Jerusalem, and added some words symboli-

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 211

cal of the occasion, but sufficiently vague not to give
offence ? It might be supposed from all this banter,
banter which was quite out of place, that Maitland
was incapable of serious thought on the subject. We
should be quite mistaken. The title that he now
suggested was the musical and noble name, ' St John
of the Isles.' As we know, the name finally adopted
was ' St Michael and St George ' ; St Michael the
Prince of Heaven, St George the Patron of England.
Then came the insignia. The ribbon ought to be
black and red, but so as to show more red than black.
We need not trouble about collars. They would
only be worn on great occasions, and they would be
very expensive, he added, with an eye to Messrs
Rundells, Bridge & Rundells's account. If provided
at all, they ought to be of silver gilt, and made in
England. It would have a most unfortunate effect
if it should leak out that we could not make our own
decorations. They might make them cheaper in
Paris, but, in his opinion, they were unnecessary.
The great point was the star, and it must be a showy
star. As soon as the sketches of the Grand Cross
were sent him, he shook his head over them. The
St Michael was much too tame, he said ; the St
Michael of Raphael or Guido would be better.

But above all things, he wrote, hurry it on. No-
body here believes that the Order is really going to
be founded ; promises in this country are considered
but as air, more to be honoured by violation than

2 12 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

performance, and till the star twinkles in their eyes,
we shall never get on well.' Pray let Sir George
Nayler {Tork Herald and Blanc Coursier) come out
before the end of the year. ' You can have no con-
ception of the impatience of these gentlemen ; ' and
when it finally appeared ^ there is no describing the
enthusiasm of the lonians over the Order, for they
never believed that it would come out.'

As regards the first appointments to the Order, he

wrote that he must have a Grand Cross for , as

he was the leader of the Opposition here, and I
bought him with the promise. Then I want two

more for and , as I don't know how to get

rid of them otherwise. Pensioning them would be
too expensive, and they would not care for a knight-
hood without something to pin on their coats. In
Malta he wanted two more Grand Crosses for the
same reason, but as these men were possessed of means,
perhaps the Prince Regent would not mind making
them counts. That would get rid of them equally
well ; it would be a valuable exercise of the preroga-
tive, and would save him two Grand Crosses.

A Cabinet Minister, jaded with overwork and
harassed by the anxious task of advising his Sovereign
on the distribution of honours, may, perhaps, in a
moment of irritation express himself somewhat in
this manner to a trusted private secretary. But that
a man in Maitland's position, charged with the
inauguration of the Order, and holding the prophetic

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 213

views that we know him to have held for its future,
should thus write officially and deliberately of the
favours of his master, is surely grossly irregular.
His language was not appreciated in England, and
he was given to understand this in the way that he
would most feel. The nominations that he asked
for were allowed as regarded Maltese and lonians,
but when it came to English public servants there
was a marked delay : and one officer whom he recom-
mended for a Grand Cross immediately, was made to
wait two years for the second class. As regards
lonians and Maltese, Maitland always spoke as if the
Order were something trivial and almost discreditable.
But when Englishmen were candidates for a decora-
tion, he invariably wrote with dignity, and dwelt on
the eminent services of the men he recommended. All
this is ancient history, and, until quite recently, secret
history ; and if it damaged the Order it certainly
would find no place here. But it does not ; it only
damages Maitland. In truth, Maitland was now at
his best — and his worst ; his best, for reasons already
set forth ; his worst, because his savage, Swift-like
cynicism was developed to its fullest extent. Not for
a moment was his strong head turned by power ; his
personal pride was of too sturdy a growth for any
work to be either above or below him, and his native
capacity was equal to any task. But he had so long
played on human nature, and had found the task so
easy, that he came to show an almost Napoleonic

214 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

contempt for the decencies. He loved to give things
their worst names ; to do good work, and speak of it
disparagingly ; to throw out noble ideas, and degrade
them in the developing until they almost disgraced
him ; to reward service and call his rewards bribery ;
to toss his favours to their recipients like bones to
snarling dogs. There might be even worse to say,
but this is bad enough ; and we are not to suppose
that he neglected public decorum altogether. The
hall of the Order was opened with great pomp. The
three Ionian nobles who carried the constitution to
Brighton received the K.C.M.G. Baron Theotoky,
the President of the Senate, received the Grand Cross
and a special medal from the Prince Regent. Mait-
land himself condescended to accept the star in dia-
monds, and an address of thanks which he described
as 'the most contemptible thing on earth.'

CHAPTER XIV

THE IONIAN ISLANDS CESSION OF PARGA

It is a relief to turn to a question — the cession of
Parga — where there was no opening for Maitland
to air opinions of this kind ; opinions which were
.equally offensive, whether real or assumed.

Parga was a European question as long as it lasted.
The chief actors were Maitland and Ali Pacha on the
spot, Castlereagh in London, and Liston in Constanti-
nople. The audience included the people (even then
a large body) who saw in the modern Greeks the
lineal representatives of the Greeks of classic days.
We do not need to exercise the imagination to realise
what the temper of such an audience would be on
such a question. Mavromichaelis's proclamation to the
address of the Sovereigns of Europe, dated from * the
Spartan camp,' 23d of March 1821, although pub-
lished some years after the date we are now consider-
ing, strikes the key-note in the phrase, * Our Mother
Country, Greece, whose enlightened genius contri-
buted to your civilisation.' This appeal always tells ;

215

2i6 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

and the reminder that the genius of Hellas contributed
to the civilisation of Europe was quite enough to
enlist a large body of influential people on the side of
the Greeks when they demurred to rendering to the
Sultan the things which were his.

Parga was a town on the mainland with some four
or five thousand inhabitants, which had formerly been
held by Venice, together with Prevesa, Butrinto and
Vonizza. It contributed to the power of Venice in
two ways. Firstly, it strengthened her hold on the
Adriatic, where it was indispensable that she should be
supreme ; and secondly, it was a convenient opening
on the mainland for the export of corn to the Islands,
where food often ran short. When the Repubhc
fell, the Islands, as we have seen, became a fief of
Turkey, and were garrisoned by Russian troops. The
mainland possessions of Prevesa, Butrinto and Vonizza,
were occupied by the Turks : but Parga held out.
It was, however, clearly laid down by the treaty of
1800 that Parga was to pass over to the Sultan,
together with the other mainland towns. They were
all specially excepted from the ' dependencies of the
Ionian Islands.'

The inhabitants of Parga were mostly Christians
of the Greek Church. They gladly submitted to
the French when the Islands were handed over to
Napoleon after the Treaty of Tilsit. Parga was
occupied by British troops on the 22d of March
1 8 14; not by way of asserting its dependence on

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 217

Corfu, but because the French garrison of Parga was
a menace to our new possessions. When the limits of
these possessions came to be defined, the treaty of
1800 was taken as the basis of the new arrangements.
There was, therefore, not the slightest doubt that the
Sultan had the right to summon us to retire and admit
his garrison. But the situation was a difficult one.
It is easy enough, from this short review of the
facts, to see what a good case could be made out
by Philhellene enthusiasts. Here was a town that
had gallantly held its own (the Turks said * rebelli-
ously') against the Moslem. It was actually held
by a British garrison. Was the King to withdraw
his troops, and leave these fellow-Christians to the
mercy of their ancient oppressors ? This was a very
touching appeal and a very powerful appeal. Mait-
land did not like the duty of acting in defiance of it.
' I cannot help thinking the cession of Parga as a most
unfortunate, though possibly a necessary measure,'
he wrote. It was not that he had any sympathy
with the Parganots. It was not that he shared the
delusions of the Philhellenes. On the contrary, the
principal difficulty in conducting his government was
' the exaggerated notions entertained of the virtue
and patriotism of the Greek people by travellers fresh
from college, and full of classic imaginings.' His
reluctance to cede Parga came from his far-sighted-
ness. He saw that the Philhellene craze was only
in its infancy. A tremendous impulse to its growth

21 8 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

could be given if the Greeks could denounce us as
the betrayers of the Greek cause. It was the kind
of temper that might lead anywhere ; and in point
of fact it did, in the end, lead to our ignominious
withdrawal from Corfu. He would have given a
great deal not to be compelled to stir in the matter
of Parga. What he hoped was that the question
might be allowed to rest until our rule in the Islands
was demonstrably to the advantage of the Greeks.
A very few years would suffice for this ; and we
might then be able to laugh at rhetoric. But the
Greeks, and the Greece in our midst, were far too
keenly alive to the value of a strong agitation with
a good cry to allow any such sensible delay. Nor
did the Turks give us much help. There had been
* painful incidents,' as Castlereagh called them, in
the other ceded districts ; and agitators did not fail
to remind the public that this fate and the other
were all that Parga had to look for from the Turks.
If it had not been for these ' painful incidents,' Parga
would have been handed over unconditionally, and
our garrison withdrawn five years before.

As it was, however, we could not afford to neglect
the outcry that daily grew louder, and we approached
the Porte with proposals. In truth it was a very
thorny question to handle. We had no right to make
proposals at all. Turkey was as much entitled to
occupy Parga as England to occupy Corfu. Indeed,
the two powers had identical treaty rights in the two

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 219

places ; and if Turkish officers had only conducted
themselves with common decency in the neighbouring
towns of Prevesa and Vonizza, there would have been
no opportunity for England to make conditions. As
it was, we offered to evacuate Parga if the Turks
would compensate any Parganots who might be de-
sirous of emigrating. The Porte took this proposal
very ill ; and showed by several small disobliging acts
that they did not like the insinuation. Later they
expressed the Sultan's views with particular clearness.
There would have been no talk of emigration, it was
said, if England had not put it into the Parganots'
heads : and this seems a reasonable statement. The
Porte was amazed that England should think it worth
while to quarrel with a friend of five hundred years'
standing for a parcel of rascally Parganots. This
was a most unpromising temper for our ambassador
to deal with ; and there was nothing for it but to
drop the matter for the moment.

We were able to approach it soon after from
another point of view. Parga lay within the pachalik
of Janina. The vazir Ali had long been growing in
wealth and importance, and was by now far too
powerful to be agreeable to the Porte, It was true that
the inclusion of Parga would add considerably to his
influence. But it was plain that England was bent
on getting money for the Parganots ; and it would
be more convenient that it should be paid out of
Ali's private purse than out of the treasury at

220 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

Constantinople. Moreover, if any undertaking had
to be entered into, it would be less undignified for
a principal governor to make terms than for the
Grand Vazir to do so. Besides consulting their
wounded pride (and the Sultan's ministers were
mortally affronted), this turn of affairs enabled them
to forward a separate scheme. Ali Pachi had long
been too powerful ; his ruin was now resolved on,
and the manner in which he met the English demand
for compensation would be a valuable indication
of his resources in money. These were supposed to
be fabulous, and in point of fact were considerable ;
but how considerable was not precisely known at
Constantinople. But this was only half the scheme.
It was hoped that Ali would be so elated by his new
acquisition that he might be led into some act of
rebellion out of sheer over-confidence ; and this was
well calculated.

The negotiations on our side were entrusted to
Maitland. He paid Ali Pacha a visit, and was re-
ceived with great magnificence. The proceedings
had to be opened with present-giving ; and Maitland,
casting about for some appropriate gift, discovered
incidentally that his proteges the Parganots were far
from popular. It fell in this way. The usual presents
of slaves it was not within Maitland's competence to
offer. The pacha was reputed so wealthy that a gift
of money or money's worth would have been common-
place. Only some object of rarity would make a

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 221

favourable impression ; and fortunately Maitland had
such an object ready to his hand. He had recently
become posseseed of a fine young lion almost full
grown ; and he sounded Ali's secretary and agent as
to whether the lion would be an acceptable present to
the pacha. The secretary said that nothing could be
found that the pacha would be better pleased with ;
and then he was silent for a space. Maitland pressed
him to repeat his opinion, as he really wanted to know
the pacha's views, and the secretary was the only
man who could communicate them. The secretary
repeated, ' Nothing would give the pacha greater
pleasure except one thing — to let the lion loose on
the inhabitants of Parga when he had got him.'

The Porte had rightly calculated that AH Pacha
would make no objection to paying a round sum of
money if he could include Parga in his pachalik ;
and if the English chose to call it compensation to
the Parganots they would be welcome to do so. The
actual sum that he paid was 633,000 dollars. The
Porte consented to recognise the Septinsular Republic
as soon as we retired from Parga, and the evacuation
took place on the 22d of March 18 19, after an occu-
pation lasting five years. Maitland had made a very
good bargain ; although best was bad, for the evacua-
tion at once led to a violent outcry against him in
England, and to a considerable increase in the ranks
of the local agitators in Corfu j both of which re-
sults added to his already serious difficulties. Four

222 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAJN

thousand starving Parganots (it was reported in
England), martyrs in the cause of Greece, exiles
who had abandoned their homes rather than
submit to Turkish oppression — 4000 of these
saintly and noble creatures had been compelled by
Maitland's conduct to leave Parga and take refuge
beneath our flag, where they were even now living
on alms, in spite of the indemnity that had been paid
over to Maitland for their benefit. The numbers
were not greatly exaggerated, considering the cir-
cumstances ; for there really were as many as 2700.
' They are very great rogues,' Sir Frederick Hankey
reported during Maitland's absence on duty in Malta,
* very fat, well-fed and rich. They sold out of Parga
at a good profit, and are successful usurers and even
somewhat bullies.'

CHAPTER XV

THE IONIAN ISLANDS CAPODISTRIAS V. MAITLAND

CAPODISTRIAS AT CIRENCESTER CASTLEREAGH

AT CRAY THE CABINET SUPPORTS MAITLAND

We must not forget that all this time Maitland was
Governor of Malta. In that capacity he was con-
fronted with the difficulties arising out of the last
occasion when Barbary corsairs plied their trade in
the narrow seas.

On the morning of the i6th of May 1817, H.M.S.
Alert sighted a Tunis cruiser carrying eleven guns and
a crew of 1 30 men off the Galloper. Her movements
were watched, and she was observed to be boarding
every vessel that passed her. Two vessels were lying
to at no great distance. The Alert hailed the corsair,
who was quite prepared to show fight ; but thought
better of it as the Alert drew near and disclosed her
armament. Questioned about the vessels lying to, the
Tunisian denied all knowledge of them. But these
vessels were boarded also and turned out to be the
Ocean of Hamburg, homeward bound from Charleston
with cotton and rice, and the Christina of Oldenburgh,
outward bound with a cargo of wheat ; both vessels

223

224 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

had prize crews on board from the corsair. The case
was perfectly clear, and the corsair was ordered into
Margate Roads. Her fellow-corsair was soon after-
wards run down and captured in the Downs.

This outrageous piece of buccaneering had been
attempted under deliberate instructions from Tangier.
Only Hanseatic vessels were to be boarded ; inasmuch
as Barbary was at peace with all other nations. They
would probably have got clear away with their two
prizes if they had not waited to make a third capture.
This information was obtained from a Norwegian on
board one of the corsairs. He had been captured
and forcibly converted to Islam, and now gave his
evidence at the risk of his life unless he returned to
Norway, which he was promised permission to do.
The German diet was, of course, much incensed at
the outrage, and Maitland was written to on the
subject of obtaining redress. The question was raised
at a very awkward moment. The Barbary consulates
had long been in an unsatisfactory state, and Mait-
land's negotiations would have to be conducted through
our consul at Tunis, Colonel Oglander, a man whom
the Bey would long ago have dismissed from his court
if he had dared to do so. For Oglander would not
kiss the Bey's hand. * He is eternally harping upon
not lowering his consequence,' Maitland wrote
angrily ; and instead of thinking about the business of
the consulate, thinks of nothing but ' the foolish
nonsense of kissing or not kissing the Bey's hand :

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 225

ridiculous and absurd stufF ! ' It seems that the Bey,
though exercising the functions of royalty, was only
the son of the titular monarch, and a younger son at
that. * He has been on his precious throne for only
a year, owing to the murder of his elder brother.'
Perhaps for that very reason he was the more tenacious
of outward marks of respect ; and he hated Oglander
for refusing them to him with all the hatred of an
affronted Moslem. Consequently, when Maitland
was directed to obtain satisfaction for the outrage off
the Galloper, he felt that it was almost 'hopeless to get
anything done through the consul ; and in fact his
request was very roundly refused, and a long string
of complaints and counter claims was sent in.

This would never do ; for the excitement in
Frankfurt was considerable, and redress must be had
at any price. It is remarkable that the Bey should
have shown so bold a front, for only a year had
passed since Lord Exmouth's bombardment of
Algiers. But he seems to have been in one of
those states of anger and wounded pride that are
hardly accessible to reason. Maitland determined
to try him with a special mission. Careful as he
always was of the dignity of officers of whom he
could not get rid, he included Oglander in the
mission, and joined him with Hankey and Spencer.
He sent a man-of-war with them, as * a display of
force is desirable.' The question of kissing the
Bey's hand was discussed in the special instructions

P

226 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

to the mission, and Oglander was advised to comply
with the custom if the other consuls did so. It
appeared that they did, with one exception ; and
this point being really the root of the whole diffi-
culty, the mission had an easy task to perform.
Their instructions went back as far as the year 1682,
and were based on the 8th Article of the Treaty of
Algiers, signed in that year. But though all these
goodly points were duly gone into with the Bey's
ministers by the embassy, the battle was won at the
outset by Maitland's politeness. The importance of
receiving a special mission gratified the Bey ; he was
appeased by having his hand kissed, and the rest did
not really matter to him. He did, indeed, threaten
to send a return embassy to England, but the question
was evaded without giving offence, and the peace of
the Mediterranean was preserved.

Constantly moving backwards and forwards be-
tween Corfu and Malta, bringing his despotic power
to bear, with the shortest possible delay, on any
irregularities that he might encounter, Maitland had
by now hewn both these most troublesome com-
munities into shape. Something like order had taken
the place of the wild anarchy that had preceded him.
If the difficulties that he overcame have not been
already made sufficiently clear, there will be nothing
gained by enumerating them. Although they were
troubles of quite an exceptional kind, the amount of
work that they entailed was not perhaps very greatly

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 227

in excess of that thrown upon many colonial ad-
ministrators in difficult times. But we now approach
an incident quite without precedent, and calculated to
disturb even the strongest nerves. Ordinary colonial
officials have their chief, who may be exacting or
petulant or (which is worst of all) indifferent; but
beyond this control there is nothing. If they have
factions to deal with, their part is done when they
have satisfied their chief. If there are questionings
in Parliament, there are the proper officers of state to
answer for the service. Maitland, as we have seen,
had numerous factions to dispose of; and he had
dealt with them all to the satisfaction of the Cabinet.
But this, which would have ended most men's
anxieties, was only the commencement of his own.
He now had to watch Capodistrias do his best to
discredit him in England with the Cabinet, and drag
his policy, if possible, before the House of Commons.

Capodistrias was a very important person indeed ;
the Secretary of State to the Czar Alexander, and
wielding the authority and information of the Cabinet
of a great European power, perhaps the greatest
European power ; and he was determined to break
Maitland if he could. Maitland, as we saw, was
perfectly aware of this, and had spent a great deal
of time and attention on the family of Capodistrias.
To us, and now, the time would seem to have been,
if not actually wasted, at any rate unnecessarily
bestowed. But Maitland thought very differently.

228 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

Great though the difficulties were that he had sur-
mounted, he forgot them all when he thought of
Capodistrias. 'The only evil we ever had, or shall
have, in these islands is the family of Capodistrias.'
' He wants to rule the Ionian Islands from his arm-
chair by a sort of imperlum in imperio.^ * It is plain
that what he wants is to have me removed. In that
event the sooner England retires the better, for she
will never be able to establish another government.'
This fact had been thoroughly grasped by the Cabinet,
who were fully resolved to stand by Maitland in the
coming struggle. There was no need for Capodistrias
to learn it as a lesson, for he had been a principal actor
in all the scenes of misgovernment at Corfu, and
knew perfectly well what the curse of his native land
was. His bearing was the more reprehensible. ' I
have now for four years been living on the top of a
volcano,' wrote Maitland when the danger was actually
over, although he did not know it ; ' perfectly un-
aware when the explosion would take place. My life
is a burden to me, but I would prefer to sacrifice it
rather than that the intrigues of this despicable
charlatan should injure the honour of England.' At
this time he was writing with a copy of Capodistrias's
memorial on the affairs of the Islands in front of him.
' It is a scene of insolent and profligate assertion,' he
wrote ; ' Capodistrias must know all the time that
every word is false.'

This very remarkable man was variously described.

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 229

Maitland called him a despicable charlatan. Princess
Lieven spoke very differently of him. ' Capo d'Istria
has just arrived in England, and I cannot say hov^^
much I regret you do not know him. You have no
notion hov^r fully he merits the hatred Metternich
bears him. He is a very superior man, both in heart
and head ; he has a noble intellect, and in short is as
worthy of your esteem as he is of the hatred shown
him by certain others.' — Princess Lieven to Earl Grey^
\']th August 1827. '.Well, my dear lord, had you and
Count Capo d'Istria met, you would have found in
him a man of honour . . . but before all you would
have recognised in him an ardent patriot who all
his life long has only had at heart the cause of his
country's independence. . . . Never has a good cause
had a better man to advocate it ; so noble and honest
by nature, backed by so great a power of eloquence
and of so commanding an intelligence.' — The Samey
I2th September 1827. But besides the fact that (as the
wife of the Russian Ambassador) the Princess could
hardly avoid eulogising the Russian Secretary of State,
that very astute lady probably chose the characteristics
that she supposed would most commend a man to an
English noble without any precise conviction that
they fitted Capodistrias. 'Despicable' he certainly
was not ; but perhaps he was a charlatan in the sense
that he acted a part well — the part of disinterested
patriot. But who was Maitland to call another man
a charlatan ? He had just completed the inauguration

230 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

of a new and august Order of Knighthood, and com-
pleted it with every outward mark of decorum and
magnificence. No one bore himself in more stately
fashion in public when he chose to do so than Sir
Thomas Maitland. But all this time he was pouring
unbounded ridicule on his own performance, savagely
denouncing the men he proposed to decorate, openly
writing of the great Order as a mere means of corrup-
tion, and chuckling over the influence he was acquir-
ing at an outlay of ^ 1 183, i6s. — the amount of Messrs
Rundells, Bridge &c Rundells's account. For a man
who has just by his own confession completed the
most monstrous piece of charlatanism to denounce
another man as a charlatan is a valuable indication of
character. Blindness to our own faults in other
people makes the kindly critic : but blindness to other
people's faults in ourselves makes the inflexible man of
action, and such a man was Thomas Maitland.

Maitland acted honestly and well, but did himself
prodigal injustice in speaking and writing, Capo-
distrias was unexceptionable in speech and in corre-
spondence, but his actions have a queer look. One
would hardly call him a gentleman, and his dishonesty
was of that childlike kind that is almost engaging.
His patriotism was of a sturdy growth, although
deeply tinged with personal rancour and disappointed
ambition for his family. But he died for it, and in
his death he vindicated both himself and Maitland, for,
as President of Greece, he was knifed in the streets

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 231

of Athens by the men for whom he had undergone
so many toils. Nor did his tragic end come before
he had, from his own observation, pronounced his
fellow countrymen to be unfit for the government
that Maitland would not give them.

But all this took place eleven years after the date
we are now considering — the end of the regency.
Maitland and Capodistrias were still mortal enemies,
and the latter was hastening from St Petersburg to
lay the complaints of the Capodistrians before the
Cabinet of England. He bore autograph letters of
introduction from his master to the Duke of Welling-
ton and Lord Castlereagh. They caused a good deal
of anxiety to Lord Liverpool at Walmer Castle and
Lord Castlereagh at Cray. It was on Castlereagh
that the duty devolved of replying to his complaints,
but the interviewing was done by Lord Bathurst,
whose stolid composure was rather diverted than
disturbed by the fireworks of Capodistrias, and who
was a good deal tickled at Count (afterwards Prince)
Lieven's obvious anxiety lest Capodistrias should say
something that might leave a legacy of discomfort
behind him for the Russian Ambassador after he
himself had returned to his chancellery.

Both Secretary and Ambassador went down to
Cirencester and stayed with Lord Bathurst together at
his country house. The Russian Secretary of State
poured out his complaints, and left behind him the
written memorandum that had so aroused Maitland's

232 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

ire. Strong though Maitland's language was, it was
not too strong. Capodistrias's attitude was thoroughly-
dishonest from first to last. Nobody knew better than
he what the lonians owed to England. He had
come of age under the government of the Venetian
Republic, the meanest and most degrading of despot-
isms, and he had borne a leading part in every succeed-
ing government until he took service with the Czar.
His experience of larger politics, and the saner outlook
on Europe that any man not radically defective in
intelligence must have acquired who had played a
part in the Congress of Vienna, cannot but have
shown him where alone the lonians could look for a
decent form of government. The only honest part
for him to have played was to have washed his
hands altogether of Maitland's enemies, and to have
cordially supported the Lord High Commissioner ;
that is, if he really cared so much as he professed to
do for the happiness of the lonians.

He commenced by complaining that the Treaty of
Paris had been infringed by the mode in which the
constitution of the Ionian Islands had been drawn up,
and the manner in which government was administered
under the new constitution.

To this Castlereagh replied that if ever general
latitude had been left to a man it was so by the words,
* shall regulate the forms of convocation of a legis-
lative assembly, of which he shall direct the proceed-
ings, in order to draw up a new constitutional charter.'

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 233

It is true that subsisting authorities were left for the
time, but that was only for carrying on the business
of the government until the charter was settled. In
drawing up that charter, no doubt consideration should
have been had not only for the habits and customs
of the peoples, but also for any particular form of
government for which they may have had a preference.
Such consideration, Castlereagh maintained, had been
duly paid by Maitland ; and on the other point (the
question of the attachment of the lonians to certain
forms of government) he quoted with damaging
effect Capodistrias's own words as Secretary of State
to the Septinsular Republic — 'The primary cause of
the late calamities of the Ionian Islands is to be
ascribed to the Constitutional Code ; . . . people will
accept without questioning whatever comes from the
adored hand of Alexander.' The people could hardly
have had a more open mind ; and they were rewarded
by the constitution of 1803. This was not in working
long enough for the people to have become attached
to it. ' But,' quoted Castlereagh ruthlessly, * Your
Excellency's sagacity appears to have convinced you
at an early period of some of its defects ; ' for
in Capodistrias's own letter to the Ionian charge
d'affaires at St Petersburg he had written that 'by
an enthusiastic admiration of abstract principles with
a disregard of facts, a work had been completed,
beautiful perhaps in the eye of a solitary philo-
sopher, but not adapted to answer the wise views

2 34 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

of a father of a numerous but indocile and unedu-
cated family.'

This, then, was Capodistrias's own view of the
constitution of 1803 : it was defective, and had no
time to get itself mended before it was swept away.
If alterations had been made in it, Capodistrias was
the last person who ought to complain. The assertion
that those persons were elected to the legislative
assembly who received the fewest votes (which, if
it meant anything, implied that Maitland tampered
with the ballot boxes), Castlereagh denounced as
' positively false ; ' and indeed it was a very impudent
assertion. The complaint that Maitland had too
much power was skilfully met by a renewed re-
ference «to the Treaty of Paris, under which the
Lord High Commissioner was granted general latitude.
Moreover, such power ' frees the Islands from elements
of abuse which always lurk in undefined power.' As
for the grumbles that Maitland was 'irresponsible,'
the petitioners simply did not understand the British
Constitution. The Lord High Commissioner was a
servant of the Crown ; and all servants of the Crown
were answerable to Parliament. This was a piece of
' bluff' ; for an appeal to the House of Commons was,
at this moment, precisely what the Cabinet were most
anxiously dreading. However, Castlereagh had such
a good case on Capodistrias's memorial that he thought
he might risk it. On the groans about the ' military
despotism ' of England, no better comment could be

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 235

offered than the language of the lonians themselves,
when Russian and not British troops were in question.
They said * the nation themselves were unfit, from
their known habits of insubordination and violence,
to be loyal and obedient republican soldiers ; and
that if the troops could not be Russian, they must
be foreigners of some other description.' But, strong
though this passage was, Castlereagh continued to
quote relentlessly, ' the Russian soldiery were the life
and soul of the State, that it was to them that they
were indebted for security of person and property, that
they were solicited and longed for as a gift from
heaven, and that if they were to depart it would
involve their complete destruction, and leave no other
alternative than that of drowning themselves in the
surrounding seas.'

Such fervid self-abasement left no more room for
deploring the military tyranny of the two or three
battalions under Maitland's command. But Capo-
distrias's memorial went on to declare that the garrison
ought, in part, to have been Ionian, and that the Lord
High Commissioner had deliberately ignored this con-
dition of the treaty. A simple reference to the 5th
article disposed of this complaint, and as regards this
and the succeeeding grievances, Castlereagh quitted the
defensive and ventured a rather more militant attitude.
* I think I shall have no difficulty in convincing Your
Excellency that an attempt has been made to deceive
you by a strange perversion, or an utter mis-statement

236 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

of the facts.' He was now approaching that part of
the memorial which dealt with the grievous results of
Maitland's unconstitutional behaviour ; and the first
complaint was the vague one that the people were
discontented, and longed for the good old days of
Venetian rule. As to discontent, Castlereagh said
there never was a State yet established where there
was not some, and the amount of restlessness was not
greater under British domination than under the sway
of our predecessors. But that the Venetian Republic
should be held up as a model to England was, indeed,
a matter of astonishment. For, quoted Castlereagh,
did not the Secretary of the Septinsular Republic
(none other than Capodistrias himself, when he was
eighteen years younger) describe that government as
one of ' corruption, vice and imbecility ! '

These crushing quotations from Capodistrias's early
correspondence were rapidly stiffening Castlereagh's
style, and he now ventured on a description of
Venetian methods of government which was only
too accurate. When stripped of the polite circum-
locutions of diplomacy, it amounted to this — that it
turned the nobility into a band of legalised brigands,
and placed the rest of the population under their feet.
This was, of course, the favourable position from
which Maitland had ejected them, and that he was
determined they should not re-occupy. One of their
great sources of profit had been that they had farmed
the revenues. This most lucrative privilege they had

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 237

long enjoyed, and therefore, wrote Castlereagh, it
would have been most improper to deprive them of
it suddenly. But he was quite unable to agree with
Capodistrias that the matter had been handled roughly.
On the contrary, he considered that this vicious system
had been continued too long for the good of the State,
and if Capodistrias thought that * due attention had
not been paid to those who have the honour of being
connected with Your Excellency's family,' he could
only point to explicit cases where they had been
handled with exceptional tenderness.

But the gem of the despatch was Castlereagh's
reply to the complaint that native lonians were passed
over in public appointments, and lucrative posts
conferred on ' foreigners.' To meet this, a list of all
the public servants of the Islands was added to the
despatch. From this it appeared that there were
no ' foreigners,' except a few Sicilians in the Sanita
and Customs. Here it was indispensable that native
lonians should not be employed, for the same reason
that coastguardsmen in England are preferred who
have not local ties. Such ties very often impede them
in the course of their duty ; and the habit of passing
over natives was well understood throughout the
Mediterranean to tend to the efficiency of the service.
The allusion to * foreigners ' gave Castlereagh an
opening of which he gleefully availed himself. For
Capodistrias was quite as much a * foreigner ' at St
Petersburg as any Italian could possibly be at Corfu.

238 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

' But, after all, if any instance could be produced of
any of these foreigners holding a high official situation,
I am sure that His Imperial Majesty has had too much
experience of the advantage which he has derived from
the service of eminent men, not natives of Russia, to
entertain any apprehension that the employment of a
foreigner in a public situation is necessarily calculated
to prejudice the interests, or can be regarded as deroga-
tory to the honour of an independent State.'

This is the venerable schoolboy retort, ' Foreigner
yourself ! ' gaining considerably in force by being
clothed in stately and courteous diplomatic phrases.

Already in the course of his despatch had Castle-
reagh had occasion to point out where Capodistrias
had stated the precise contrary of the facts. He now
had to deal with a very flagrant mis-statement. Capo-
distrias had made the heavy charge that the Ionian
people were, under English rule, for the first time
kept in perfect ignorance of revenue and expenditure.
Castlereagh adduced Maitland's published statement of
accounts, and added that it was the ' first public state-
ment of the receipt and expenditure of the Ionian
revenue which was ever made to the people under any
of their numerous constitutions ; and I must here
take the opportunity of expressing my regret that
Your Excellency did not condescend to avail yourself
of the offer made by the Lord High Commissioner
to give any explanation which you might desire with
regard to any of the proceedings of the Ionian govern-

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 239

ment. It is true, I find upon inquiry, that he made
the offer only once, but his apology is that he was not
encouraged to repeat it by Your Excellency observing
that you had never read the constitution ; from which
he not very unnaturally concluded that either, as His
Imperial Majesty's Minister, you abstained from all
possible interference with the internal proceedings of
the Islands in rigid conformity with the 2d Article
of the Treaty, or that, for some other reason, you
had decided to have no communication with him
on the subject.'

Before closing the subject of Capodistrias's memorial,
we may conveniently digress at this point, and notice
what was the actual system followed by Maitland in
the matter of appointments. It was an anticipation
of that now followed in Egypt by Lord Cromer ; as
few Englishmen as possible, and those picked men.
They must be in influential positions, so as to
penetrate the public service with the traditions of
sound work and devotion to the public interest. But
it was particularly desirable that they should be as
little in evidence as possible, so as not to ' teaze ' (a
word of which Maitland was very fond) the people
with the constant reminder of the * foreigner's' presence
and influence. The residents in each island were
Englishmen. It was on these indispensable function-
aries that the very heavy duty fell of compelling the
feudal chiefs to pay that respect to the law that they
had always refused under other governments. In fact.

240 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

the law had been, in Venetian days, the principal
instrument of their authority. In remote islands, and
surrounded by their own people, these nobles were all-
powerful but for the residents. The greatest of this
useful body of men was Charles Napier, who was
selected for the Residency of Cephalonia, not more
on account of his inflexible uprightness, than because
of his despotic temper. This temper, almost a repro-
duction of Maitland's own, made him an ideal official
for dealing with the schemes of arrogant and hitherto
uncontrolled nobles in their own country, and his
work was exceptionally fine. After dealing with the
question of appointing * foreigners ' to places of trust,
Castlereagh proceeded to examine in detail the various
charges (one being a very gross charge of misappro-
priation of public money) against Maitland, and con-
cluded, ' Your Excellency will, I trust, pardon me if
I altogether decline entering into any examination of
the means by which the memorialists propose to im-
prove the existing constitution. It is sufficiently
evident that what is meant by improvement is the
utter subversion of all that has been done under the
treaty of 1815.'

It is hard to say what can have induced so able a
man as Capodistrias to expose himself to so severe a
rebuff, and to so detailed an exposure of the aims of
his party. It can only be surmised that he expected
to overawe the British Cabinet. He may have cal-
.culated that the personal intervention of the Czar

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 241

Alexander, joined to a very natural unwillingness to
take so much trouble as was involved in Lord Castle-
reagh's despatch, would dispose the Cabinet to remove
Maitland. But whatever his calculations may have
been, the actual result of his journey to England and
of his attack on the Lord High Commissioner was
to strengthen Maitland*s hands prodigiously. To the
youth of the Ionian Isles, Capodistrias was a figure
of almost legendary renown : his power was sup-
posed to be second only to that of the Czar himself.
If their champion could effect nothing against Mait-
land, it was clear that they would do well to make
their peace as soon as possible.

Accordingly we are to observe that at a time when
the Mediterranean was a scene of bloodshed, rebellion
and civil war, the Seven Islands, formerly the wildest
and most turbulent spots in the Mediterranean, re-
mained in profound peace. With one foot in Malta
and the other in Corfu, King Tom stood out as the
visible embodiment of a Pax Britannica, He bestrode
the Mediterranean like a Colossus. Brigand-nobles, like
those whose ruined castles fringe the Rhine, men who
but five years before had been despots in their island
fortresses, were now harmless and even useful citizens.
Either they had entered the King's service, and dwelt
apart from their lands, discharging the duties of their
well-paid posts and decorated with the great Mediter-
ranean Order ; or else, if they were not to be so lured
away, they lived peacefully on their estates, scared into

242 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

good behaviour, and fearful lest by misconduct they
might forfeit what local influence was still remain-
ing in their hands. Here was a wonderful change
indeed ; it was almost the difference between the
Scotland of 1745 and the Scotland of 1845, between
the Germany of Anne of Geierstein and the Germany
of Little Lilliput. Maitland's work would have been
sufficiently remarkable if there had been no tempta-
tions to the lonians to resist him. But besides the
intrigues of Capodistrias which have just been noted
in such detail, we shall only half appreciate Mait-
land's magnificent achievement if we do not consider
the state of the surrounding countries.

CHAPTER XVI

THE IONIAN ISLANDS REVOLT IN THE MOREA —

ATTACKS ON MAITLAND IN PARLIAMENT

GROSS MISREPRESENTATIONS OF JOSEPH HUME

Ferdinand of Naples, who spent his life in being
expelled with ignominy from his capital and in
returning to it amid thunders of acclamation from
his fickle subjects, had just been expelled and re-
stored for the last time — on this occasion by the
force of Austrian arms. Writing of the state of
Italy in 1821, soon after order had been restored,
Maitland compared it to *the quiet and tranquillity
of one of those receptacles of human misery where,
when the keeper appears, all the maniacs are in
highest regularity and order ; ' the keeper here being
the Austrian Emperor.

Maitland was in a position to judge, for he was
writing from Rome, where he had gone at the
invitation of Cardinal Gonsalvi to treat of the
Church affairs of his double charge. Under his
grim metaphor it is easy to see that the state of
society was exactly that which most tempts ad-
venturers ; and the lonians were adventurers from
the beginning. But under Maitland's rule there was

243

244 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

more money to be made by staying at home quietly
than by risking one's neck in foreign revolutions,
and a far better chance of enjoying it, when made,
than the lonians had ever known before.

If the state of the Italian coast of the Adriatic was
alarming, that of the Turkish coast was appalling. On
the 20th of May 1820, Ali Pacha declared himself
independent. For two years he maintained his power
against the Sultan's forces, and by the time that he
was assassinated, on the 5th of February 1822, the
Balkan Peninsula was in flames from end to end,
and that great civil war was set on foot which only
closed with the foundation of the state of modern
Greece. Here were disorders far more serious than
those of the Italian peninsula. Moreover, they
made a constant and direct appeal to the passions
that most moved lonians : their hatred of Islam
and their desire for independence. First of Ali
Pacha. He was an Albanian, nominally a Moslem,
but hardly more than an occasional conformist. He
greatly attracted Charles Napier, who was an en-
thusiastic Ionian at heart, and who paid visits to
Ali, advised him on military matters, and drew up
plans of defence. In fact, he offered to lake com-
mand of the insurgent army and march on Con-
stantinople if it were made worth his while to
throw up his commission in the British army. It
is a most singular comment on the temper alike of
Ali and the Greeks that they could not bring them-

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 245

selves to the small outlay which this implied. For
;^ 30,000 or ^40,000 they would have com-
manded the services of a first-rate soldier. As for
their resources, the Greeks drew easily on the
London money market, and All's private fortune
was not less than five millions sterling. Ali was
eighty years of age when he revolted, and his
avarice was unparalleled. It was in the end his
ruin. He could not be persuaded to pay his soldiers,
who slowly fell away from him. He could not
bring himself to make a reasonable offer to the
Porte, which was quite open to one ; and the re-
sult was that instead of marching on Constanti-
nople, as Napier had undertaken to do, he was
gradually hemmed in by the Sultan's troops.
Napier's conduct was watched in England with
some curiosity, not to say suspicion. But there was
no real cause for uneasiness. Besides the fact that
both Ali and the Greeks were too avaricious
to make Napier independent, there were other ex-
cellent reasons for not employing him. The Greek
insurgents would never have consented to put so
much power in the hands of an Englishman : they
were far too vain and greedy of power for them-
selves. They took everything that was offered
them as a right, and not as a favour. ' The Greeks
generally appear to have considered the loan as a
small payment for the debt due by civilised society
to the country that produced Homer and Plato. ^.-^-^r^TTv

o^*^'

C

24-6 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

"r

The modern Greek habit of reducing everything to
a pecuniary standard makes Homer, Plato and
Co. creditors for a large capital and an enormous
accumulation of unpaid interest.' It was the same
with service. Napier was at liberty to ruin him-
self for the Greeks if he chose ; but in return he
would receive nothing but the approbation of the
insurgent leaders for conduct which would have
shown that he was not insensible of the debt that
he owed to the country that produced Homer and
Plato.

Ali was equally grasping. It was not the support
of a single officer that he desired, but the support of
the whole nation. He frequently sounded us as to
whether he might count on the British navy in his
coming struggle with the Sultan ; but there was no
hint of any advantage that England was to gain by
such a course of action ; it would have been sufficient
reward to have helped Ali.

Ludicrous though this attitude is, it is not perhaps
entirely incomprehensible to us to-day ; but what-
ever extravagances may still be committed in the
name of the country that produced Homer and Plato,
they are as nothing to the extravagances committed
three-quarters of a century ago. Lord Byron com-
mitted a good many, but Byron was a sober and
practical statesman compared to Frederick North, who
had now succeeded to the Earldom of Guilford, and
who went about the Islands masquerading as Plato,

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 247

with his hair done up in a gold band, and arrayed in
flowing purple robes. Lord Guilford had lavished
money in the Greek cause, and was particularly
anxious to see a theatre built in order to revive Greek
tragedy. But alas ! Greek tragedy was no more to
be revived by building a theatre for it than North
could make himself like Plato by tying his hair up
with a gold braid.

But when two peers of England, both of them
public men, and one of them the greatest living
man of letters, could make themselves publicly absurd
in the name of the land that produced Homer and
Plato, we may imagine how smaller men were carried
away by the same wave of enthusiasm. We may also
imagine the stimulus which this kind of talk and be-
haviour gave to those fiery spirits whom it was the
business of Maitland's life to keep in order. He had
had to teach the lonians the elements of sound com-
merce and sound finance ; he had had to drill them
in elementary notions of government and justice. He
now had to show them the meaning of the word
* neutrality.' * Neutrality,' he wrote, ' is a thing that
no Greek understands ; he must always be meddling.'
The ' meddling ' in this case was nothing else than
a conspiracy, with its centre in Corfu and branches
in all the Islands, to second the Greek rebellion on
the mainland. *If the British Government had not
been strong and steady, it would have succeeded,' he
wrote. But this is his modest way of saying that,

248 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

for the most part, the lonians were terrified at
Thomas Maitland. He commenced his enforcement
of neutrality by forbidding Turkish vessels to put into
Ionian ports to refit. This measure was thoroughly
approved in the Islands. But his next measure was
received with boundless indignation. This was no-
thing less than to order the disarmament of the
Islands ; Corfu being ordered to disarm last as a
compliment to the Corfiotes' loyalty. He was only
just in time; and in two islands, Zante and Santa
Maura, disturbances actually broke out.

As much as possible was made of both by the
enemies of British rule at home and abroad. ' This '
they said, ' is what comes of despotism. This is what
happens when a noble and high-spirited people are
ground down by a shameful tyranny, all careers closed
to them, and all their lofty impulses thwarted.' It is
submitted that under the circumstances the proper com-
ment would have been, * If these things happen under
Maitland, what would have happened without Mait-
land ? ' There was one execution in Santa Maura,
and there were five in Zante. In the latter island
the neutrality of the port was violated, an officer
killed, and for a time things looked serious. This
was because there was a local head for the uprising
in the person of Count Martinengo, who was the
richest man in the Ionian Islands, and had been a
disturber of the peace of every government that had
been established there since the fall of Venice.

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 249

The disturbances following on the revolt in the
Morea gave him his first chance of playing this part
under British rule, and he seized it ; in spite of being
seventy years of age, a time of life when men mostly
are rather fain to contemplate revolutions than to lead
them. But the evergreen turbulence of the Greek
temper, which led Ali into revolt at the age of eighty,
broke out in Martinengo at a comparatively early age,
and he played his part with considerable vigour. He
had, however, underrated the change that had taken
place in the state of society. In former days the poor
people had to do whatever a man of Martinengo's
wealth commanded them to do. Or, if they disobeyed,
they did so at the risk of their disobedience being
remembered against them. But now the poor people
were much too comfortable, and much too secure in
the fruits of their labours, to revolt at the bidding of
any man. As for the risk of disobedience, it had
disappeared ; for the law, as they very well knew,
was afraid of nobody. Still greater was the change in
Zante from the days of Martinengo's youth when he
came to consider the nobles. Formerly they stood by
each other, and lived on their estates ; but in Mait-
land's time some were in Corfu, and others hoped
to get there. Of those that remained some were
disaffected, truly, but a few really admired a stable
government ; and of those who did not, some were
too scared to run the risk of rebelling against it. In
fact, Martinengo was out of date, and his revolt came

2 50 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

to nothing. He fled to the Morea, where he was
followed and arrested by the order of Sir Frederick
Adam, the deputy of the Lord High Commissioner,
who was admmistering the government in Maitland's
absence at Malta.

This was very characteristic of Adam, and it gave
much annoyance to Maitland. It looked like a strong
measure, and was in fact a very feeble one. Nothing
could have been more convenient for the government
than that Martinengo should have run away. He
would only be welcomed by the rebels for the sake
of his money ; and as a forfeited rebel to the Ionian
government, he would be unable to get at it, and
would soon find himself in miserable circumstances.
This was the punishment that he would most feel,
and without a doubt he would soon be begging for-
giveness. He might then be restored to his estates on
our terms, and would be harmless for the future. In
the meantime, we should have avoided the odium of
the prosecution to which we were now committed.
Such a prosecution would certainly have one ill
effect, and might have two. It would infallibly
give Martinengo an opening for posing as a martyr-
patriot, and it might even break down altogether for
want of evidence. Maitland's reluctance to prosecute
was misunderstood by Martinengo. He thought it a
favourable moment to make proposals ; and while
Maitland was hesitating to prosecute, because he
feared that the good of the State might be damaged

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 251

by the trial, Martinengo imagined that he was wait-
ing for an offer. He had precedent to go upon; for
this was not the first time that he had been tried for
his life, and on the previous occasion he had found no
difficulty in buying his pardon. The offer that he
made is the most eloquent testimonial that was ever
rendered to Maitland's devotion to his duty. Martin-
engo seems to have perfectly appreciated the difference
between the Lord High Commissioner and his Russian
predecessor. He quite understood that jewels and lands,
castles or simple cash bribes would stand no chance of
acceptance with Maitland. But knowing Maitland's
zeal for the service, he offered firstly to keep Volterra
(a Capodistrian agent) out of London; secondly, to
show us how to recover the Church moneys (which
had disappeared, and were concealed under a cloud of
intrigue that Maitland had always failed to penetrate);
and thirdly, to throw in his influence definitely with
the English cause, on the single condition that he
himself might be made a senator. A very consider-
able bribe indeed ; and there have been crises when
such offers must be considered. Maitland knew (and
Martinengo was well aware of it) that Martinengo
was the only man in the Islands who could render to
the State these invaluable services. But the Lord
High Commissioner merely observed that 'so profli-
gate a degree of insolence and threat' settled the
matter, and the trial must immediately be proceeded
with. Privately, however, he was much vexed at

252 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

having his hand forced ; for he had very grave doubts
as to w^hether the power of the nobles was sufficiently
curtailed for it to be possible for him to obtain any
evidence. In the latter respect Maitland did his own
system less than justice ; evidence in plenty was forth-
coming, and Martinengo was tried and condemned.
The greater part of his punishment was remitted, and
he was restored to his estates.

But the incident was ominous. Justice was done,
and mercy shown ; but a vast amount of friction had
been incurred, and much unpleasantness. It was all
the difference between a man of first-rate capacity at
the head of affairs, and a man of something less than
second-rate capacity. Sir Frederick Adam was to
succeed Maitland as Lord High Commissioner, and
after Adam came a long line of Adams down to the
disastrous 2d of June 1864. Never again were the
Ionian Islands to have another Maitland for their
ruler.

It is difficult for us to realise the tempests of passion
and hatred that raged around Maitland during the
closing years of his life. Brigandage, the sheltering
of those who were obnoxious to the law, the smuggl-
ing of provisions, and especially of arms, every form
of violated neutrality, in fact — these deeds, which were
strictly forbidden to the lonians, were to their minds
not only harmless, but positively laudable diversions ;
and when performed in the cause of Greece and Greek
independence — ^sacred duties. But if the lonians raged,

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 253

Maitland raged also. It was one man against the
Islands ; but the Ionian anger was as the anger of
children beside Maitland's. He had been absent in
Malta at the time of Martinengo's flight, but had
hurried back ; and, now at Corfu, now at Santa
Maura, wherever his presence could be most effective,
he spent his days in enforcing that neutrality that the
lonians were bent upon violating. We should also
add, which they were encouraged to violate ; for
while the Sovereign of the protecting powers was
neutral, the people of England were violent partisans.
English money came pouring into the insurgents'
camp ; and explanations were haughtily demanded by
the Porte. How is it possible to explain to an Oriental
mind that government are of one opinion and the
people decidedly of the contrary ? Our ambassador
did the best he could to explain away the subscriptions ;
but with only partial success. England in the person
of the Lord High Commissioner was fiercely enforcing
neutrality ; but by the purses and the speeches of her
subjects, she was doing her best to render neutrality
impossible.

Under any man but Maitland it would have been
impossible. There were regular bands of lonians
servmg with the Greek insurgents, and calling them-
selves ' the army of Zante,' ' the army of Cephalonia.'
One body of emigrated Parganots banded themselves
together to recapture Parga ; 3000 lonians altogether
were serving with the army of the Morea. Sometimes

2 54 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

these redoubtable patriots came to blows with the
Turks ; and when they had run away, they expected
to settle down comfortably in the Islands. But they
received the most unpalatable order to quit within
ten days. The less numerous sympathisers with the
rebellion in Naples were also expelled ; and the result
of this energetic dealing with incendiaries was that
some measure of confidence in us was restored at
Constantinople. The resentment still cherished
against us by the Turks for our behaviour about
Parga was enhanced by their mortification at seeing
the Greeks financed from England. It was quite
possible that unless Maitland inflexibly enforced Ionian
neutrality, he would find some difficulty in compelling
the Turks to keep outside the four-mile limit. A
' Turkish cruiser ' had been a terrible visitor within
the memory of many living men. How if, exasperated
by the rebellion, there should come a time when
Turkish captains were given to understand that
any little irregularities on the Ionian coasts would
not be too critically examined at Constantinople ?
This was the danger that the hot-headed lonians
were drawing down upon themselves ; and this was
the danger that Maitland was resolved, at any cost,
to avert.

A very gross breach of neutrality occurred at
Santa Maura, and the Porte haughtily demanded
compensation. Maitland promptly acceded to their
claim, and, to the infinite wrath of the lonians,

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 255

mulcted the Septinsular treasury in ^^ 60,000. He
was equally prompt in demanding compensation when
the lonians were affronted. Two Ionian sailors were
taken off a ship, carried away prisoners to Prevesa,
tortured and executed. Instantly Maitland filed his
claim for compensatory damages to their families, and
his claim was admitted and settled without delay.
These incidents, thus- told without detail (which
would be merely wearisome), implied a heavy strain
on the Lord High Commissioner, and long and
harassing correspondence, for in every case prompti-
tude was of the essence of the affair. If the Porte
became suspicious of Maitland's intentions, * incidents '
would multiply with such rapidity that it would have
been impossible to deal with them. If the lonians
imagined that Maitland either could not or would
not obtain redress for their wrongs, they would
promptly have betaken themselves to that revenge
which was the only justice they had known for
centuries. For many months every hour was a
crisis, but Maitland's vigilance and energy met every
danger as it arose. As the war went on, a * Greek
fleet' was called into existence, and duly made its
appearance in the Ionian seas. Maitland was not
sorry to see it, on the whole, as its chief object
was to find out whether or no the Islands were
really disarmed. They were welcome to any in-
formation on this head that they could elicit. They
were duly warned to keep outside the four-mile limit.

2 56 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

and the approach of the Turkish fleet quickened
their movements.

While Maitland was toiling in the Mediterranean,
enforcing neutrality with an iron hand, and doing
his best to assure to his Sovereign the mastery of the
sea-way, it will be in the highest degree instructive
if we very rapidly survey the criticisms passed on
his work in Parliament. To act with one eye on
the House of Commons is a check on the actions
of an imperial oflicer, and sometimes a wholesome
check ; but there has always been, and it seems
that there always will be, a little knot of members
who make it their business to represent every deed
in the most unfavourable light. To conciliate these
men is not possible. A man may do what is just
and expedient, but nevertheless, if there be a way
of so handling the matter that it can be made to
look unjust and inexpedient, in that way will the
matter be handled. In days gone by Maitland had
himself been a chief sinner in this respeet. Very
early in his Mediterranean career, and at intervals
throughout its entire length, he was to suffer the
punishment that he had himself inflicted upon others,
the punishment of hearing himself totally misrepre-
sented while his own lips were sealed, and while
even his defenders in the House were unable, for
cogent reasons (connected with the service and
diplomacy), to give the real grounds for justifying
his actions.

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 257

Never were there reasons more impossible to give
publicly than in the case of the Ionian Islands. Wc
have seen with what a network of complications and
intrigues the Ionian question was surrounded. We
have seen with what mingled force and dexterity
Maitland threaded his way through the maze ; how
many pitfalls he avoided, and how at last under the
Treaty of Paris he evolved something like a stable
government through the quasi-despotism with which
he succeeded in investing the Lord High Commis-
sioner : the stepping-stone, as he called it, to some-
thing better.

His work was not made easier for him by Sir
Charles Monck, who moved, on the 21st of May 18 16,
* That a committee be appointed to inquire into the
present political condition of the Ionian Islands, and
to report their opinion thereupon to the House.' The
grounds for this motion were the lamentable misbe-
haviour of the British forces in occupation of the
Islands ; a behaviour which had been exceptionally
reprehensible. Nor was that all ; Sir Charles under-
stood that a sort of government was about to be
established that would be grossly unjust to a 'great
and considerable nation' (the lonians). P'irst and
foremost he denounced the position to be occupied
by the British commissioner, who, it appeared, could
actually have the power of directing the proceedings
of the legislature, an intolerable interference with
national rights and independence. 'Would you, sir,'

R

258 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRJTAIN

he continued, addressing an indignant appeal to the
Speaker, * sit one hour in that chair ' on such terms.
Of course the allusion was to Speaker Lenthal ;
but the parallel of the President of the Legislative
Assembly of the Ionian Islands with Charles Fs
Speaker was somewhat forced. How would it
work out if carried a little farther r We should
have Capodistrias for Cromwell, and Mocenigo for
Hampden. Perhaps some sense of the absurdity of
the appeal stole over the minds of the Commons, for
the motion was negatived without a division. When
once the constitution was established, there was no
single question that gave Sir Thomas Maitland so
great anxiety as that of the cession of Parga. We
have seen how unwillingly he approached it, how
clear were the rights of the Turks, and yet how
reluctantly the Lord High Commissioner admitted
them — foreseeing the inevitable parliamentary debate.
It was just the kind of question that attracted Sir
Charles Monck ; he seized on it with a pleasure that
he avowed to the House. The Parganots were *an
interesting people,' 'struggling for freedom,' and he
was sure the House would not refuse them its
'sympathy and compassion.' Their surrender to the
Turks would be 'so abominable that he could not
suppose any British minister would give it his sanction.'
'These spirited, free, independent patriots' were now
about to be deprived of 'all that made civil society
valuable.' The stress was applied to us, as we have

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 259

seen, by a treaty obligation ; but Sir Charles passed
lightly over that as an * unfortunate clause,' and then
proceeded with his speech amid thunders of applause
as if the clause were non-existent.

On this occasion (26th May 18 19) he only moved
for papers, a motion to which Lord Castlereagh at
once acceded.

The cession of Parga was resolved on, and it duly
took place. In June following there was a short
debate on the subject, a debate of which the most
marked feature was the tribute paid to Maitland's
'distinguished ability and humanity ; ' a tribute paid
not only by Lord Castlereagh, who was Maitland's
official champion, but also by Sir James Mackintosh.
Mackintosh was strongly opposed to the cession, and
made a statesmanlike appeal to the House on the
subject. But though he was of this mind, he ex-
pressed his opinions with moderation, and punctiliously
paid a tribute to Maitland's character as that of a
gallant officer whom he well knew to be 'a humane
and honourable man.' He thus pointedly dissociated
himself from the Moncks and the Humes : and as we
said in the case of Ceylon, he was perfectly capable of
appreciating Maitland's work. He dissented from that
part of it that was concerned with Parga as a gentle-
man and a statesman, and not as a raving agitator.

Maitland's next assailant was a man of the latter
type. On the 23d of February 1821, Mr Joseph
Hume rose to move an inquiry into the revenue and

26o BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

expenditure of the Ionian Islands. Mr Hume was
a very earnest advocate of retrenchment in public
expenses. He w^as a man of means, having amassed
no less a sum than ^40,000 during his short
career of seven years in the Civil Service of
India, from vv^hich he retired in the year 1807 at
the age of thirty. He v^as thus both well and ill
equipped for the part of financial reformer : well
equipped in that he was himself independent, ill
equipped in that his independence had been attained
by very dexterously availing himself of alarming
irregularities in the administration of the empire.
When he set up as a financial purist, he might
therefore very properly have been bidden to look
first at home.

Mr Hume had earned for himself a reputation
as a disinterested public man. But when we study
his speeches and compare them with original docu-
ments describing the state of things he professed to
be surveying, we can only marvel at the facility with
which such reputations are earned. He commenced
his assault by stating that the revenue of the Islands
* had originally been adequate to all the charges
upon it, and their government was conducted upon
the principle of a regular and systematic economy.'
On this statement the only possible comment is that
when we assumed the control of the Islands there was
no government existing as we understand the word
government. Neither was there a * revenue,' nor

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 261

were there ' charges ' upon it. Every man scrambled
for what he could get, and the strongest got the
most. The only * principle ' animating public life
was the principle in which Mr Hume had acted
when building up his own fortune — the principle of
availing himself of opportunities of filling his own
pocket. As for * regular and systematic public
economy,' there was nothing in the Islands that was
either regular or systematic, and there was no attempt
at economy. In fact, his preliminary statement was
a deliberate and elaborate falsehood. The rest of his
speech was in line with the opening sentences. He
stated that Maitland had taken ^^ 10,000 from the
treasury for his star of St Michael and St George ;
whereas it was only after twice refusing the offer
that the Lord High Commissioner had consented
to accept a star worth one-fifth of that sum. He
abused him for living in a ' palace,' whereas he
lived in a *palazzo' — a very different building.
Even in his * palazzo ' he only inhabited two rooms,
and gave up the rest to the public service. The
rest of the speech is all in this vein. Castlereagh and
Goulburn replied, and warmly defended Maitland
from the charge of jobbing in the public service.
Mr Joseph Hume charging Sir Thomas Maitland
with jobbing ! It is a very pleasant incident.

Six months later he was in even finer form, for
he moved for an inquiry into the conduct of Sir
Thomas Maitland. It is hoped that in the preceding

262 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

pages there has been no attempt to magnify unduly
the character of Sir Thomas Maitland, or to glide
over awkward incidents in his career. The truth
has been told so far as lay within the author's
capacity ; the position has been ventured that the
sole animating principle of Maitland's life was 'the
safety, honour and welfare of His Majesty and his
dominions.' In the course of his duty he came face
to face in the Ionian Islands with a state of society
that has hardly been glanced at in this volume. In
one sentence, it was as if a section of the Rhine
country had been cut out of the Middle Ages and
planted in the Grecian Seas. The 'Teutonic paste
in our composition ' enables us to realise quickly
enough what the state of society must have been
like. A thousand tales and romances have come to
the aid of sober history and told us of the robber
barons with their troops of vassals, their violent
feuds, their lusts, their revellings, their fleecing of
the poor, their intrepid rebelliousness. Because the
lonians bore soft Italian or glorious Grecian names
we think that they were very different men. The
words ' lord ' or ' vassal ' call up visions that are
not to be easily associated with sparkling seas and
sunny skies. Still harder is it to realise that the
incomparable grace, the almost Oriental charm of
manner, the elegant speech and the superb intelligence
of the Ionian noble covered passions as fierce, and
a longing for revenge as ruthless, as any that raged

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 263

and were sated in grey castles on pine-clad heights in
the valleys that run to the Rhine.

To rule such a society at all is hard ; to rule it
without an overwhelming military force is monstrously
hard ; to rule it constitutionally is impossible. One
may draft a constitution, but it is in spite of, and not
in consequence of, that constitution that order will be
maintained. We have seen how Maitland achieved
the impossible. All human nature lay open to him
as a book, and on the passions, the fears and the
hopes of man he played, until, in the nineteenth
century, and in the eyes of all the world, he had
hammered and welded into order a society that came
to his hands straight from the fourteenth.

Mr Joseph Hume proposed to criticise this perform-
ance. He said that it was 'more odious than the
tyranny of Turkey or Persia, and was a disgrace to
England.' Maitland was * nothing less than a Roman
proconsul, the alpha and omega in every proceeding,
with the advantage of screening himself from
responsibility behind his underlings : ' and without a
man in some such position, as Mr Hume had quite
sufficient intelligence to understand, society would
have dissolved into its elements. Nevertheless, he
went on, he pledged himself to prove *such a
system of misrule as must excite the indignation of
every good man, and he could only, if his motion
could be refused, appeal to the House as a witness of
his endeavour to prevent the disastrous consequences

264 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

of rebellion and civil war which must ensue in
these Islands if Sir Thomas Maitland was allowed
to act the tyrant.' Particular instances of Sir
Thomas's despotic behaviour were given to the
House, but Mr Hume's hardest words were reserved
for the case of Count Martinengo, whom he
described as 'one of the richest and most respect-
able inhabitants of the island.' Rich, Martinengo
undoubtedly was, but respectable ? Perhaps he was
also a respectable man ; but he was a good many
other things as well, as we have seen. The lenient
treatment that he received was denounced by Mr
Hume as the last that could be considered accept-
able to so ' high-minded ' a man.

It is very disagreeable to Englishmen to think of
the post-office being violated in any interest, most
of all in the governmental interest. But when Mr
Hume denounces Maitland's secret police as a
system of 'revolting espionage,' one asks whether
there was no 'revolting espionage' on the other
side of the account ? To sum up, the English
system of government was ' disgraceful to England,
it was cruel to the lonians, and on the heads of
these who supported such misrule would be the
blood that would be shed.'

Even so does the hired incendiary implore the
mob not to nail their victim's ear to the pump.

Mr Hume wound up with the usual peroration
about public duty, and after having grossly mis-

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 265

represented a King's officer throughout a long
speech full of the most damaging and wounding
insinuations, begged the House to believe that he
had had no intention of hurting the Lord High
Commissioner's feelings.

Mr Goulburn replied, dwelling on the *very
vulgar error in this country to call all systems of
government tyrannical and oppressive which did
not exactly resemble the British, although they
might be much more suitable to the people among
whom they were introduced.' To demolish Mr
Hume's falsifications was a matter of no great diffi-
culty, and Mr Goulburn wasted no time over
them, concluding, 'the honourable member had
charged Sir Thomas Maitland with a proneness to
adulation, a fondness for show and parade, and, in
fact, with supporting bribery and corruption. He
was aware,' he continued loftily, ' that the high and
meritorious character of that gallant officer could
gain little from his advocacy,' but while repelling
the charges against him, ' he did not feel it necessary
to put the general character or the public service of
that gallant officer in opposition to those charges.'

This was a very handsome defence, but it was
followed by a very unhandsome attack from Mr
Bennet, who told with Hume in the division that
followed. It was a very able speech, much shorter
than Hume's, and deserves quoting in extenso as a model
of unscrupulous and intelligent attack, although it

266 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

could not have been made by any member who cared
either for the comfort of the lonians or the good of
the King's service. It amounted to this, that the
Ionian constitution w^as an indecent sham. In a
sense it was a sham, but it was a very creditable sham,
and if it has not been already justified in these pages,
there is nothing more to be said. Mr (afterwards Sir
John Peter) Grant, who became Chief Justice of
Calcutta, took up the very judicial attitude that he
was sure that Maitland's conduct only needed ex-
planation, but that as the motion implied a censure,
he should certainly not vote for it. The speech of
the evening was made by Sir Isaac Coffin, who was
put down for the Earldom of Magdalen by William
IV. Sir Isaac said, * He had known Sir Thomas
Maitland thirty-five years, and a more able and gallant
officer did not exist.' That was, in effect, all the
answer that Hume deserved, but he rose and replied
in a very angry and ill-mannered speech, grossly
abusive of Maitland, and highly inflammatory of
Ionian unrest. It is gratifying that he only carried
27 members of the House with him, as against 97
who voted against his motion.

Maitland had two chief enemies, beside a whole
crowd of lesser men ; the two chief were Capodistrias
and Hume. It is remarkable to observe with what
little effect these two most intelligent men attacked
him. It is a profound tribute to Maitland's instinctive
sagacity that when Capodistrias attacked him, he only

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 267

succeeded in making himself absurd, and when
Hume attacked him, he only succeeded in show-
ing himself abusive and ill-tempered. But, in fact,
it was not because Maitland's measures were bad
that they were attacked ; it was because they were
successful. Capodistrias had the saving grace to
confess himself in the wrong before he died, but
Hume remained to the last impenitent. We may do
him the justice to believe that his motives were not
personal. He always protested that they were not,
and we may accept his protest. He did his best to
get up a full dress debate every year on the conduct
of Sir Thomas Maitland. From the most important
of these (that of May 1822), we learn what Maitland's
pay was. As Governor of Malta, ;^5000 ; as Com-
mander-in-Chief in the Mediterranean, ;^3500 ; as
Lord High Commissioner, ;^iooo ; as former Gover-
nor of Ceylon, ^^lOOO; and he also commanded a
regiment. Mr Hume (who would not be likely to
understate it) estimated his income at ^13,000 a
year. On this he had to keep up quasi-royal state in
two places. Is this to be considered an excessive sum ?
At the present day the salaries of many colonial
governors are scarcely regarded as more than a contribu-
tion (sometimes a considerable contribution) towards
their expenses. There seems to be no general dis-
satisfaction with this system, although there are obvious
set-ofFs to its advantages. But the value of money has
fallen so greatly in the course of the last three-quarters

268 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

of a century that we must not suppose that Maitland
was underpaid because on the same salary he would be
underpaid now. In Maitland's day £1000 a year
was private means, ;^3000 a year would support a
baronetcy, ^^ 10,000 a peerage. With ^13,000 a
year and two governorships to keep up, he was there-
fore adequately paid, but hardly more than adequately.

If one were to believe Mr Hume, we should
conclude that the financial abuses of pre-revolu-
tionary France were nothing by the side of the
financial abuses of Corfu. One grows somewhat
fatigued with the incessant denunciations of the
constitution as 'one of the grossest delusions and
most unblushing impositions that was ever submitted
to the consideration of an intelligent people.'

* Shameful ' it was for * England to be thus held
up to the censure and derision of all Europe.'
The cession of Parga was 'one of the darkest
blots on our national reputation.' * Every act of
our government was distinguished by violence and
tyranny.' *The bare relation of them made the
blood boil, but the endurance of them was ample
motive for the lonians to make every exertion to
throw ofF a yoke so unjust and so onerous. The
wonder, indeed, was that these brave islanders,
under such aggravated oppressions, had not made
greater efforts to free themselves from such an
odious bondage.'

Thus judiciously and patriotically did the leader

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 269

of the Radicals urge the lonians to treason and
rebellion.

It does indeed make one's blood boil, even three-
quarters of a century later, to read the mischievous
nonsense that Mr Hume thought proper to spout
in the House of Commons.

Nothing was more certain than that without
Maitland's disarming order the Ionian Islands would
have been in flames from end to end. Thousands
of lives must have been lost,"' and civilisation destroyed
for the time. How does this course of action, at
once vigorous and humane, commend itself to Mr
Hume ? It was * an act inflicting the deepest
disgrace upon the whole population, for to them
to be without arms was a badge of slavery.' He
further had the impudence to assert that Maitland
was abusing the enforced neutrality for the purpose
of favouring the Turks, and on* Lord Londonderry
challenging the statement, Mr Hume said that he
had no proof, but that 'in the nature of things
it must be so.' After prolonged vituperation he
wound up with the usual expression of hope that
he had not expressed himself oflFensively. There
was more ground covered on this than on any
other occasion, and several questions were raised
more keenly at issue than the single question of
Sir Thomas Maitland's honesty. A much larger
body of opinion, therefore, followed Mr Hume ;
but his motions were rejected by 152 to 67.

CHAPTER XVII

THE IONIAN ISLANDS INTERNAL AFFAIRS CHAR-
ACTER OF THE PEOPLE THEIR WINNING

MANNERS THEIR FAILINGS SUDDEN DEATH

OF SIR THOMAS MAITLAND

It will have been observed that throughout the fore-
going debates Mr Hume always assumed that the
lonians were the same people in essentials as the
English. He assumed that the same measures would
gratify them, that the same language would be under-
stood in the same sense by both peoples ; that what was
right and wrong at Clapham would be found to be
right and wrong at Paxo. This is the common error
of these facile critics ; but Mr Hume is the less to be
excused for it, in that he was no stay-at-home. He
had spent a good deal of time in the Islands, and had
had ample opportunities of studying the Ionian char-
acter. It was, of course, Greek in basis. A shepherd
of Ithaca would allude to ' my ancestor Odysseus,' as
if there could be no possible doubt about his descent.
This assumption of descent from the heroes of the
ancient world, and consequent presumed inheritance

270

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 271

of their qualities, was pushed forward with much
pertinacity and ability by the agitators of the time, as
we have seen. On the strength of their country
having produced Homer and Plato, the modern
Greeks have been allowed a long credit in every sense.
Without being swept away in a whirlwind of en-
thusiasm for Hellas, like the 'semi-delirious lords,'
Guilford and Byron, as De Quincey called them ;
nor on the other hand descending to the con-
temptuous abuse that too many Englishmen indulged
in ; let us try to realise the lonians of Maitland's day
as nearly as we can.

* The merry Greeks are worth all other nations put
together. I like to see them, to hear them ; I like
their fun, their good humour, their paddy ways. As
to cleanliness, they cannot brag. Yet they don't love
dirt like the Venetians ; they only suffered it out of
politeness when the last were their masters, and are
now leaving it off in compliment to us ; all their bad
habits are Venetian ; their wit, their eloquence, their
good nature are their own.'

This passage from Charles Napier's private notes
(1825) gives the lonians a good character. The
parallel with Ireland is noteworthy, and perhaps
explains this excerpt from the diary of a confessed
admirer of the Greeks forty years later — ' I hear that
a whole family of five persons have been just assassi-
nated at Zante by an act of vengeance in that land
of frequent homicides.' This is another side to the

272 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

Ionian character, and perhaps enables us to fill in
the outline a little. Passionate, merry people these
lonians, with a capacity for nursing hate, and a
total indifference to animal suffering, as the following
incident shows us, 'AH of a sudden, a number of
lambs were dragged along and had their throats
cruelly hacked at the thresholds of houses in the
best streets of the town. Some of these creatures
were ten minutes, or more, in parting with their
lives, tortured in honour of the Greek passover.'

Their family feelings were strong. The charge of
loose morals is one which every nation levels at every
other, and it has therefore become a perfectly ineffective
charge ; and as a guide to national character, the
inquiry is worse than useless. But this contrivance
(unique surely) at the Foundling Hospital of Corfu
deserves mention. * There is a circular box for the
reception of babies. It revolves in a hole in the outer
wall on a spring being touched, which at the same
time causes the bell to be rung.' If we compare this
contrivance (so carefully calculated to avoid embarrass-
ing interviews) with the uncompromising notice out-
side Captain Coram's institution in London, we shall
find food for reflection. In religion the lonians were
divided between the Greek and Roman Churches ;
but to both Greek and Roman Catholic the very
name Protestant was a term of reproach, and their
behaviour to the Jews was a scandal. 'I have just
prevented a massacre of the Jews here, all got up for

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 273

the love of Jesus,' says Napier, describing one of his
earliest experiences in Cephalonia. The treatment
meted out to Jews is an infallible index to the state
of civilisation attained by a country. * Every country
gets the Jew^ it deserves' is an impeccably accurate
guide. Ask in any land, ' How do the Jews fare ? ' and
the answer is a condemnation or not, according as the
Jews fare ill or well. In the Ionian Islands they were
treated rather worse, until the advent of the English,
than in other countries of Europe. It is not ignorance
alone that this distorted habit of mind points to,
although ignorance in plenty was to be found among
those who should have been the people's guides ; as
witness this story of Charles Napier and the new
Bishop of Cephalonia. 'We have got a bishop
appointed ; an excellent, pious man, who formerly
lived by sheep-stealing, which he now calls his pastoral
life. His depth of learning and length of beard are
alike admirable : he piques himself on a thorough
knowledge of the canon law of Justinian, which
chiefly rules the Greek Church, and he assured me that
the said Justinian wrote the Code Napoleon out of
friendship for Buonaparte, as they had been at the
school of Brienne together. Disputing this fact, I
asserted that Justinian was King of England in the
reign of Solomon, and that an ancestor of mine had
been sent to Jerusalem to teach logarithms to the
architect who built the temple. This greatly dis-
turbed the bishop's theory as to Brienne.' If this was

274 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

the ignorance of the learned, what was the ignorance
of the peasantry ? But a very clear distinction must
be drawn between the nobles and the populace. The
nobles may, to a very small extent, have shared the
ignorance of the people, and no doubt they had short-
comings of their own in addition. But they were the
only hope of the Islands. They had the habit of rule
inherited from long centuries of undisturbed authority
under the Venetian Republic. They were naturally
at home in places of responsibility ; but they required
most careful watching and constant curbing. To
train this dishonest but highly capable oligarchy into
a band of administrators who would feel that the
peasant's cause, rightly understood, was their own —
this was a large part of Maitland's duty. Ignorant,
bigoted, revengeful, but merry and affectionate, very
clannish, very talkative and, as we shall see, super-
stitious, and totally destitute of any notion of what
may be meant by the word truth : such was the Ionian
plebs. First of their superstitiousness. Let us take
this account of a Greek christening by a Philhellene.

' Except the officiating priest and his attendant boy,
I was the only person present who was not a relation
of the family. The brother of Lascarato officiated as
godfather. The ceremony commenced at four p.m.,
and lasted about an hour. It was a truly tedious,
and I may say without exaggeration a disgusting
affair. The priest gabbled over a great number of
prayers in a most irreverent and unimpressive manner.

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 275

Perhaps this was the custom ; but it is possible that he
considered it useless to pray for the child of an excom-
municated man. The uncle godfather held a large
lighted candle in his hand throughout the ceremony.
His chief task appeared to be the answering of
numberless questions. The proceedings were opened
by a long exhortation by the priest to the devil, who
appears to be considered as especially present and active
on such occasions. Amongst other performances the
dirty little boy who officiated as clerk squeaked out
the creed three times successively, with the most
wonderful rapidity. The last twenty minutes of the
ceremony were actively employed in torturing the
baby. After various crossings and benedictions, it was
stripped naked and carried in a cloth by the nurse.
The priest then burnt a quantity of incense, and
poured plenty of oil into a large iron caldron previ-
ously half filled with tepid water. His reverence now
seized the baby and plunged it three times into the
caldron. The shrieks and piteous moans of the victim
may be easily imagined. It was laid, still naked, on
its back, and the priest, with a piece of rag soaked in
oil, crossed its face, breast and stomach. After this it
was turned on its face and the same ceremonies per-
formed on its back. It was now put in a cloth, which
was held by the priest at one end and by the god-
father at the other. In this hammock-like position
the baby was carried three times round the caldron
and incense pan. It was then handed to the godfather

276 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

by the priest, and passed on to the mother, and finally
to the nurse ; all of them successively kissed it. I
cannot pretend to recollect all the details of the baby's
martyrdom, but the above description of what I do
remember w^ill give the reader some idea of the cruel
barbarity of a Greek christening. The enlightened
parents v^ould of course have gladly dispensed with such
abominations. But for the sake of the legal rights of
their child it was necessary to conform to the custom,
and to leave everything to the priest. Lascarato
assured me that children are usually very ill for some
days after their christening. But my only surprise is
that they do not frequently die.'

The lonians were, of course, at liberty to indulge in
these and any other disgusting barbarities that they
chose ; but when we are called upon to admit that
the people who can tolerate this kind of procedure
at the christening of their offspring are our rivals in
civilisation, we can only demur. It is partly with the
object of pointing the difference between the two
peoples — English and lonians — that this ceremony
has been recounted at length. But it is most in-
structive as an illustration of Ionian superstitiousness.
The core of the ceremony is indeed the familiar
baptism, but the whole is so overlaid with incanta-
tions as to be scarcely recognisable as a Christian
ceremony. If superstition had still so firm a hold on
a ceremony so dear to mothers — the most interested
in abolishing superstition here if anywhere — we may

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 277

infer what chance there was of ousting it from
occasions when the leverage of human feeling was
less powerful. It is hoped that by now some few
hints have been given of the nature of the peoples
over whom the English were called to rule. The
conclusion of the most sympathetic of all English
visitors to the Islands, the man who was as much
admired and respected by the lonians as any English-
man of his day, was this. * In my opinion,' wrote the
Earl of Orkney, * constitutional ideas as cherished by
Englishmen are simply absurd when applied to modern
Greeks in their present state of incomplete civilisation.
The best form of government for them for at least the
next fifty years would be, I am convinced, an enlightened
and popular despotism, if such a thing were possible.'

This brings us back to Sir Thomas Maitland, the
work of whose life it was to establish just such a
government. There is not much more to be said.
' King Tom's ' career was now rapidly nearing its end.
But Maitland was not one of those who 'first die atop.'
To the end his brain was as clear and as vigorous as
at the beginning. If there is any sign of failing force,
it is a tendency to repeat himself in his despatches.
His writings have a very rage of emphasis. After
pouring out twelve folios on the conduct of Mr
Jabez Henry, an officer with whom he quarrelled, he
says, ' But enough of this, to sum up ; ' and then
proceeds to add another twelve folios in the same
vein. But this is rather an error of style than a

278 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

piece of senility. One would almost say that his
vigour seemed to grow with his difficulties, since, with
the Mediterranean countries in flames all round him,
with the most violent attacks being continually made
on his policy in England, with the multifarious com-
plications of the Ionian constitution to be dealt with,
far from cutting short his correspondence, he seemed
to delight in making his despatches as exhaustive and
detailed as possible.

At the close of 1823 he betook himself to Malta.
He was much abused for not spending more time
there, and it was stated in the House of Commons
that he only put in 309 days' residence at the seat of
government in the course of six years. There was
no answer made to this charge, and in point of fact
none was necessary ; for Malta did not suffer by the
governor's absence, except, perhaps, socially. It is
easy to understand why this should be. He had had
three years of Malta before he took up any other
duties. During that time he had got the government
into working order on sound lines, and all that Malta
needed was time. As regards the work of his two
charges, there could be no comparison. Malta was
one, the Islands were seven. Malta was a crown
colony ; but nobody could say what the Islands were.
Malta could easily be controlled from Corfu, but
Corfu could by no means be controlled from Malta.
The never-ending unrest of the Barbary States, how-
ever, took him to Malta, and on Saturday, the 17th

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 279

of January 1824, ^^ had a long conference with Sir
Richard Flasket. He then dictated a despatch on
the subject. ' We shall be teased for ever if we are
not firm' with the Barbary States. Macdonell, our
consul at Algiers, was much to blame for the existing
confusion. He never made even a pretence of report-
ing to Maitland, as was his duty. His conduct was
most indecent and insubordinate, and he would certainly
have been suspended if Maitland had had a man-of-
war handy. After his morning's work, the governor
walked across to the house of Mr Le Mesurier, the
chaplain of the forces. At half-past one he was seized
with a fit of apoplexy. He at once became insensible,
and by half-past ten that night he was dead, never
having recovered consciousness except for a few
seconds from the moment of his seizure. So died
Thomas Maitland in the full heat of battle, with the
harness on his back, as he would have wished to die.

The following account of the last ceremonies,
hitherto unpublished, is from the pen of an eye-
witness and staunch admirer : —

' On Monday the body was removed to the Hall of
Saint Michael and Saint George, and there laid in
state until the morning of the funeral. The utmost
solemnity attended this. The room was day and
night lighted by tapers ; an aide-de-camp was con-
stantly at the head of the coffin, and on a table at
the foot were placed three cushions bearing the

28o BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

insignia of the three different orders with which
he had been invested.

'Wednesday the 2ist was the day appointed for
his removal from these last offerings of worldly
honour and respect to the solitude and silence of
the grave. The many who were from their situa-
tions obliged to attend, and the multitude who
voluntarily did so, met at the Palace at half-past one
on that day. The procession was then arranged, and
minute guns marked its progress. The service was
read in most sincere and deep distress by Le Mesurier,
and three volleys fired over his grave announced the
completion of that barrier which was to shut out for
ever to our mortal eyes this exalted, revered and most
justly-beloved personage.

* It is not for such a pen as mine to presume to
speak of Sir Thomas Maitland as a public character.
As a private one, his praises are best established by the
deep and most deep grief which his removal has en-
gendered, and never, I do believe, was a more efficient
tribute to the excellence of a dying master offered to
Him unto whom all hearts are open, than was on that
wretched night to be traced in the sorrowing coun-
tenances and stricken hearts of the many faithful
servants and friends who surrounded his dying bed,
and who thus saw themselves, by the fatal work of a
few short hours, deprived of their fairest hopes for
future days, of all their support and enjoyment of the
present ones.

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 281

* Still, amidst it all, there is for all food for con-
solation. " To all men it is appointed once to die."
The moment ordained by Almighty God on the
present occasion seems to have been almost set apart
for the purpose of concentrating into itself the many
and various proofs which long years and distant
quarters of the globe have produced of his public
and private usefulness and value. He had returned
from England, having gained a complete triumph over
calumny and falsehood, and that without any in-
terference of his own or of his friends. His own
capacious mind fully penetrated the weakness of his
opposers, and it was far beneath the dignity of his
character to call in any other influence than the slow
but sure progress of common sense and the power of
his own unblemished name.

'The peaceable state of this island had long borne
testimony to the wisdom of its Governor, and his
return to it now was marked with double welcome
from the expression of his intention to make Malta
in future his head quarters, and this, too, heightened
by the contrast between his present satisfactory state
of health and spirits, with the very impaired one in
which he had left us in the spring.

* After remaining a short time here, he found him-
self obliged, by some important business relative to
repairing the fortifications of Corfu, to repair thither
for a few weeks, and he probably, too, thought it ex-
pedient to pay the compliment of an early visit to

282 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

a State which, bad as in itself it certainly was, had
yet, like all other governments in which he had been
engaged, yielded not only its most inherent feelings,
but even its most determined character, to his wisdom,
his determination and to his mildness. All this His
Excellency could not but feel with an honourable
pride, and one of his last letters from Corfu, dictated
in his usual expressive language, said, "We are all
here in a state that, if any man had told me five years
ago I ever should have seen these islands in, I cer-
tainly should have considered him a fool or a mad-
man — quiet to the last degree. The courts shut,
for they have nothing to do, and instead of murder and
crimes of the most atrocious nature we have not now
enough for a common Justice of Peace to execute."

' His country, his Sovereign and his governments
were thus all bearing testimony to his wisdom and
abilities, and he was permitted to depart in the fullest
lustre of both ; and his friends, in the midst of the
deep grief which their own personal feelings of de-
privation cannot but indulge, must yet feel a pride
and consolation in the consideration of his having
done so, and that every feeling but those personal
ones, mingled with the remembrance of him who
is gone, must be such as to call for thankfulness
instead of sorrow.'

* Sir Thomas was a mortal of strange humours and
eccentric habits ; but it is due to the memory of that

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 283

able man to say that his government bore the im-
pression of his strong mind. "King Tom" was a
rock ; a rock on which you might be saved or be
dashed to pieces, but always a rock.' So wrote
Charles Napier of him. It has been attempted to give
in this volume a more detailed estimate of this very
great man, in whom savage scorn for mankind was
wonderfully interwoven with a delicate and even tender
consideration for weaklings. He died unmarried; what-
ever tenderness his nature contained was poured out
so long as it lasted, and as occasion arose, on officers
suffering wrong or indignity. But this gentler side
of his character appears but little after Ceylon days. It
was swallowed up in pride of achievement and contempt
of men. We may say literally that ' his heart was in
the service.' ' A rock ' he certainly was for stubborn-
ness, but it would be difficult to find a simile for his
furious energy. In this sketch there has been no
attempt to describe his private life. It is generally
admitted to have been remarkable in many ways.
But this biography is the life of a public man ; and
with his public career (it is submitted) the public alone
are concerned. This is not said in order to screen
Maitland from harsh criticism ; in so far as his public
career was concerned, everything he did that was
of questionable taste has been as fully dwelt on as
those actions of his that call for admiration.

But in biography, as in architecture, whatever is
not a strength is a weakness. How, for example.

284 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

does it strengthen our conception of Napoleon I.
to know that the sight of a hair in the butter
turned him (like a good many other people) sick r
It simply distracts our attention from the warrior
and the statesman to be called upon to study these
trivial details, of which so many have been stored
up for us. Supposing that all that we had to narrate
of Maitland's private life was that he was skilled
in water-colour drawing, or admired the music of
Paesiello, or kept canaries ; how would the recital of
these blameless diversions help us to realise the man
who ruled the Ionian Islands and Malta together ?
As a matter of fact, Maitland was exceptionally
devoid of resources. Of him more than of most
men we can say that the man's work was the man,
and his work was monumental. More of it has
survived than befell with some other adminstrators. Of
his three great tasks, Ceylon, Malta and the Ionian
Islands, Ceylon and Malta remain to testify to his
capacity; the Ionian Islands have passed away into
other hands. But when he died, and for forty years
after, they were still English ; and Maitland must
have felt that his life had borne abundant fruit.
Wherever he had served he had been the right
man in the right place. He was the very man to
hew a colony into shape ; and to achieve that end
with the least possible friction and in the shortest
possible space of time. The most violent attack on
his policy in Ceylon was made by De Quincey in

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 285

his famous essay on the fall of Kandy. But it was
implied rather than expressed; and of course De
Quincey had no means of knowing the compulsion
under which Maitland sacrificed everything to what
he denounced as the ' very lunacies of retrenchment.'
De Quincey could not know that the Malays were
confessed traitors, the other coloured troops luke-
warm in our interest, and the white forces totally
inadequate to defend the island ; to say nothing of
being continually called in to play nursemaid to the
government of Madras. If he had known all this,
he would not have blamed Maitland's inertia in the
face of the atrocities that made Kandy a fouler and
bloodier Kumasi. In point of fact, there has been
no greater piece of pure adminstrative work than
Maitland's government of Ceylon.

His work in Malta was less remarkable, but we
have been recently reminded how difficult the
Maltese population is to handle in the face of a
serious epidemic, and we are so far well equipped for
appreciating the ease with which Maitland dealt
with that panic-stricken state of mind.

The question of the Ionian Islands was made from
the outset, and perhaps designedly made, a question
of the extremest complexity. Nobody would have
been surprised or alarmed if England had annexed
them ; but to call them independent when they ob-
viously were nothing of the kind, to call them
English when (from a diplomatic point of view) they

286 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

were not English, was to lay up for ourselves and
for the lonians certain disaster. It was evidently a
source of the utmost mortification to the Capodistrian
party that (thanks to the genius of Maitland) we got
out of our immediate difficulties as well as we did.
Our failure was prophesied from the outset, and it
was hoped that our failure would be complete and
immediate. Instead, we achieved a most remarkable
success. It was common to attribute our eventual
failure to our * unsympathetic ' and ' unconciliatory '
dealings with the lonians. But an examination of
the dreary history of the protectorate shows us that
this mental attitude is made up of a fondness for
vague phrases, and an admiration (real or professed)
for all qualities not English, and has very little basis
in reason. The lonians, like many other subject or
quasi-subject races, had no particular desire for our
sympathy. For the most part they looked on us as
decidedly their inferiors. However much they might
orate against us, they had no rooted objection to our
presence, and rather mocked at the talk about 'sym-
pathy.' ' Either govern us or go away,' the most
intelligent of them were accustomed to say.

What was required for Maitland's work to be
preserved was a succession of Maitlands. An ideal
successor to Sir Thomas Maitland would have been
Sir Stamford RaiHes. Raffles was possessed of all
Maitland's courage, sagacity and insatiable power of
work ; and he possessed, in addition, the tastes and

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 287

manners of an accomplished gentleman. In the ap-
pointment that was actually made, we see fore-
shadowed the whole history of our failure. For
Malta a man of first-rate capacity was chosen —
the Marquis of Hastings. So important was Malta
felt to be that Hastings, who had just retired from
a ten years' term of office as Governor-General of
India, evidently thought the island government no
derogation from his dignity. But for the Ionian Islands
no more considerable person was selected than Sir
Frederick Adam, Maitland's understudy. This was
an appointment that could not have been made if the
impression that anybody would do for Corfu had not
been general. Now and then, during Maitland's ab-
sence in Malta, Adam had been called upon to act
on his own initiative. He had the courage to act ;
but he always acted wrongly. He was a man of
second-rate capacity ; and Corfu was a post that
called for a man of first-rate capacity, and provided
even such a man with more work than was good
for him. There is very little doubt that the work
killed Maitland ; it would have killed most men
years before.

The Ionian Islands required unremitting attention
both from the Lord High Commissioner and the
Colonial Office. The apparent stability that Mait-
land had so wonderfully brought about deceived all
the Lord High Commissioners into the belief that
they had nothing more serious to do than to attend

288 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

to the routine of established administration. As for
the Colonial Office, England was just entering on
the long dead period during which it was the fashion
to decry the colonies. Far from the Colonial Office
being thought to be of any importance, or from it
being held desirable that the office should be watch-
ful over colonial interests, it was tacitly and often
explicitly maintained that the sooner there were no
colonies the better. Meanwhile, and awaiting its
inevitable and desirable extinction, the Colonial Office
could not do better than keep itself quiet, and, above
all, avoid taking things seriously. Now, the one point
of Europe which for the next forty years demanded
daily and hourly to be taken seriously was the Ionian
Islands. Not because it was the meeting point of
such mighty interests as, for example, Florence or
Frankfurt, but because of the unexampled complexity
of the conditions under which its government was
maintained. * Laissez aller ' was the worst imaginable
policy for them, and ^laissez aller'' was daily cried
up as the only possible policy — the policy at once
righteous, wise and profitable. So the day came
when the Islands were surrendered to Greece, and
surrendered in such a fashion that we gave the im-
pression of having been expelled. Our retirement
marked the lowest point of England's influence in
Europe and the world. At the beginning of the
century England ruled the sea ; at the end she seems
to have climbed part of the way back to that dominant

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 289

position. During the middle of the century she
seemed incapable and undesirous of doing more than
rule herself and the Isle of Wight ; for our retirement
from Corfu was generally understood to mean much
more than the surrender of an agreeable winter resort
for people of leisure : it was the open and definite
renunciation of the mastery of the Mediterranean.

A very short examination of the history of the
growth of British influence in the Mediterranean
has already been attempted above. The only point
that it is necessary to notice here is that Sir
Thomas Maitland's governorship coincides with the
only period during which England actually held the
mastery of the Mediterranean. This was not merely
the result of his appointment at the moment when
France was exhausted by the Napoleonic wars, and
when no other nations were present in force to dispute
our supremacy. These were, no doubt, the circum-
stances under which he took up his duties. The most
inconsiderable man would at such a time have been
for a few years a conspicuous figure. But nothing
like the mastery of the Mediterranean would have
resulted from his measures.

Maitland was a statesman, and the only Mediter-
ranean statesman that England ever produced. There
have been Indian and Canadian and African states-
men not a few. But only for a brief period was Eng-
land in a commanding position in the Mediterranean,
and during that brief period her interests were watched

T

290 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

and guided by Thomas Maitland. He not only
managed his double charge ; he held it in the
hollow of his hand. With his superfluous leisure and
energy, he mastered every Mediterranean question
that could directly or indirectly concern the interests
of England. He knew the Barbary States, and all
their persons and politics, by heart. He managed
them to perfection ; now cajoling, now menacing,
but always politely ; and supplementing, by the
mere leavings of his own energy, the feeble fumblings
of the consulates.

As regarded the Porte, he was favourably placed ;
for he had known Liston, our ambassador, for twenty
years, and understood exactly how to take him. The
extremely distasteful business of Parga he carried
through in person ; thereby gaining, from personal
observation, an invaluable knowledge of the affairs of
the mainland. As for Italy, he was at home in its
politics from the beginning. He frequently visited
the baths of Lucca, and his valetudinarianism was a
constant subject of scoffing among his enemies. But
at Lucca he met all the considerable people of the
Peninsula ; and in his situation, knowledge of people
was everything. Many a man would have been dis-
turbed by the alarming views that Lord William
Bentinck was continually putting forward about the
condition, now of Sicily, now of Genoa, now of the
mainland. But Maitland had known Bentinck in
India, and knew him for a well-meaning, blundering

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 291

man who would always be in some difficulty. So he
was quite undisturbed by his outcries.

He had, of course, much to do with the court of
Rome. Another man would have conducted his business
with the Papal See by correspondence. But Maitland
betook himself to Rome, and personally directed it ;
not only because he was well aware of the essential
importance of religious matters, but because he lost no
opportunities of knowing men as they were rather
than as they appeared on paper. So in the long list
of his personal acquaintances the name of Cardinal
Gonsalvi, the Papal Secretary of State, is one of the
most important. It was no doubt largely owing
to Sir Frederick Adam's extensive local knowledge
that he was selected as Maitland's successor. But
it is one thing to have knowledge, and another to
know how to use it.

If we regard the history of the English in the
Mediterranean as beginning with the year 1661,
we find that when it had lasted one hundred and
fifty years the first and only Mediterranean states-
man arose. Other men had had particular pieces
of work appointed them to do, and they had acquitted
themselves more or less creditably. No connected
policy had inspired their instructions, or was served
by their efforts. We drifted backwards and for-
wards, torn between the impulse of the people and
the reluctance of the Cabinet. To Maitland alone,
in whose day those two impulses acted in the same

292 BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

direction, was confided the duty of definitely secur-
ing the mastery of the Mediterranean to England.
He secured it as firmly as the rock to which Napier
compared his own character. When we lost it, there
was the usual sage comments about the * inevitable,'
the 'natural,' and so on. Yet it is not so astonish-
ing that we should have retired as it is that Mait-
land's work should have endured so long. After
Maitland, nothing was added to the fabric of the
Ionian government. But it took forty years of the
wash of sentiment, forty years of the open assaults
of enemies, forty years of the acid dribble of intrigue
to wear away his work.

Whether or not the Ionian Islands were a loss to
the British Empire is a question for military and
naval experts. But a civilian may offer the obvious
comment that, in the hands of a power which (what-
ever its virtues) is not likely to become a first-rate
power from either a military or naval point of view,
they can hardly be considered as a great danger.
Moreover, since no one power is to have the mastery
of the water-way, there is something to be said for
the view that the more Mediterranean powers there
are the better.

Since Maitland's day we have advanced a good deal
further. But the influence of other powers, has grown
much more rapidly than our own. Our indirect
influence has, however, increased prodigiously, and
has increased in directions that could never have

SIR THOMAS MAITLAND 293

been foretold in Maitland's day. The Mediterranean
question is still, for England, a burning question of
foreign politics, as it has been any time since the year
1 66 1. But although the Ionian Islands have sunk
into complete obscurity, and the whole Mediterranean
outlook has grown so much wider that the Adriatic
has become a mere backwater, we can perhaps afford
an hour to studying what it was that Maitland created,
and how his creation was destroyed. There are still
the two parties among us : those who angrily resent
the idea of our withdrawal, and those who as angrily
resent our presence in that quarter. To one of these
parties the name of 'King Tom' will always be
anathema maranatha ; but the rest of us will say, may
England never want for Maitlands at a pinch.

INDEX

Abercromby, Sir Ralph, Maitland

reinforces him, 65.
Aberdeen, Lord, desired as Lord

High Commissioner, 174.
Abolitionist movement, 28.
A'Court, British Ambassador at

Palermo, 163 5 at Naples,

189.
Adam, Sir Frederick, 250, 252 5

succeeds Maitland as Lord

High Commissioner, 285,

288.
Adams, John, 26.
Addington, Henry, 67.
Agio on Ceylon Bills, 94, 95.
jilert, H.M.S., seizes corsairs off

the Galloper, 223.
Alexander, The Tsar, 178, 182,

183, 190, 200, 227, 233.
Alexandria, The plague at, 146.
Algiers, Treaty of, 226.
Ali Pacha, 173, 182, 215, 219,

220, 221 ; declares himself

independent, 244 5 and is

assassinated, ib. ; his private

fortune and avarice, 245,

246, 249.
Alien Bill, Dundas's, 11.
Amiens, Treaty of, 21.
Army Estimates, Debate on, 13.
Aux Cayes, 41.

B

Balcarres, Earl, Governor of
Jamaica, 39 ; corresponds

with Maitland, 43 5 his
views on San Domingo, 44 ;
scanty concessions by, 48 ;
his helplessness, 58.

Bank of England suspends pay-
ment, 27.

Barbary States, 161, 169, 278,
279, 286.

Barlow, Sir George, 124 ; appeals
to Maitland for help, 125.

Batavian Republic, 88.

Bathurst, Lord, 5, 147, 153, 158,
164, 169, 185,197,198,202,
231.

Belleisle, Expedition to, 60 et seq.y
69.

Bennet attacks Maitland, 265.

Bentinck, Lord William, 98 ; his
dealings with the Madras
army, 99 ; appeals to Mait-
land for help, 100 ; his grati-
tude, ib. ; recalled from his
government, 105 ; Plenipo-
tentiary in Sicily and ap-
peals to Maitland for help,
144; affronts Murat, 154-,
in difficulties with Genoa,
1635 appeals to Maitland for
help, ib., 287.

Berkeley Square, Maitland in, 58.

Board of Control, Maitland sworn
of, 67 ; its working, 68, 69.

Bosset (De). See De Bosset.

Brest, 61.

Bridgewater Canal, jj.

Brougham, 194.

Buchan, Colonel, ordered to Nega-
patam, 100.

295

296

INDEX

Bunbury, Sir Henry, 145, 153,
161, 162.

Butrinto, 216.

Byron, Lord, 246 ; *the semi-
delirious lord,' 271.

Byzantine Constitution, 178, 187.

Calcutta, Anxiety in, 27.

Cape Dame Marie, 41.

Cape of Good Hope, Cession of,
22.

Cape les Trois, 41.

Cape Mole St Nicholas, 31 ^^ seq.

Capodistrias, Count John, 183,
189, 190, 191 ; 'the worst
of Radicals,' 194, 195, 199,
227 ; * the only evil we ever
had in these Islands,' 228 ;
*a very superior man,' 229,
231 5 travels to England, ib. ;
interviews Bathurst, ib.^ 232
et seq.y 258 5 his assassina-
tion, 230.

Capri, 137.

Castlereagh, Lord, 67, 118, 153,
199, 215, 218, 231 5 replies
to Capodistrias, 232, 240,
259 ; replies to Joseph Hume,
261.

Cayemite, 48.

Ceylon, State of, in 1805, 74;
Civil Service of, Maitland's
views on, 86, 87 ; native army
of, 89 ; litigious character of
the inhabitants, 90, 91 5 the
Survey Department, 91 5
military importance of in
Maitland's day, 95, 96, 97 5
settlement of, by Europeans,
projected by Maitland, 126 5
De Quincey on, 281.

Channel Islands, Maitland in, 7.

Cheltenham, Maitland in, 58.

Coffin, Sir Isaac, defends Mait-
land, 266.

Collingwood, Admiral, 27.

Colonial Assembly of Jamaica, 58.

Consols fall to 51, 27.

Cornwallis, Lord, 8, 124.

Corsica, Expedition to, Maitland
derides it, 14, 179 ; Theo-
dore, King of, 176.

Cove of Cork, 63.

Cradock, Sir John, appointed
commander - in - chief in
Madras, 68 ; recalled, 105.

Critico, Turkish Consul at Malta,
160 ; quarrel with Maitland,
161.

Croix de Bouquets, 36.

Cromer, Lord, 229.

Cuba, 31.

Curmi, The plague at, 146,

Dallas's speech on the resumption
of hostilities, 23, 24.

Davie, Major, taken prisoner by
the King of Kandy, 78, 93 ;
Maitland attempts to procure
his release, 93 5 fails, 94.

De Bosset, 173, 174, 204 et seq,

D'Enghien, Due, 168.

De Quincey, his views on Byron
and Guilford, 271 ; and on
Kandy, 281.

Deputy Secretary of Ceylon, no,
III, 112.

Downs, Capture of corsairs in the,
224.

Dundas's Alien Bill, 11 ; instruc-
tions to Knox on succeeding
Maitland in San Domingo,
44 ; gratitude for Maitland's
efforts, 46 ; his Belleisle de-
spatch, 65 5 Houat despatch,
66.

Dutch prisoners in Ceylon, jj, 88,

£

East Indies, Maitland in, 7.

INDEX

297

Eastern Empire, Preservation of, 8.
Eastern Question, Maitland's early

views on, 10.
Egypt, 22 et seq.y 180.
Enghien (D'). See D'Enghien.
Elba, Escape of Napoleon from,

163.
Exmouth, Lord, 225.

Falmouth, 49,

Finances of San Domingo, 31 ; of
Ceylon, 122 et seq. ; of Malta,
155 ; of the Ionian Islands,
185.

Flanders Expedition, 62.

Fouche, 168.

French Kingdom of Naples, 138.

* Friends of the People,' Maitland
joins them, 11, 127.

Georges, General, 61, 65, 66.

Gonsalvi, Cardinal, 243, 288.

Goulburn, Henry, defends Mait-
land, 261, 265,

Gozo, The plague in, 146.

Grant, Colonel, President of the
Emigrant's Board, 42 ; success
of Maitland's instruction to
him, 43 ; accompanies Mait-
land to Philadelphia, 53 ;
Consul General at Port au
Prince, 57 ; Toussaint refuses
to see him, ib.

Grant, John Peter, 266.

Guilford, Earl of. See North.

H

Habeas Corpus Act, Debate on
the suspension of, ij et seq.

Haddington Burghs, Maitland sits
for, 8.

Hankey, Sir Frederick, i6i, 206,
207, 222 J Mission to Tunis,
225.

Hastings, Marquis of, succeeds
Maitland in Malta, 283.

Hastings, Warren, Maitland at-
tacks him, 9 5 defends him,
12.

Hawkesbury, Lord, 67.

Hayti, 28.

Hedouville lands in San Domingo,
34 ; his position there, ib.

Hispaniola, 28,

Hood, Admiral, Maitland attacks
him, 14.

Hotham, Admiral, 14.

Houat, Island of, 60, 61, 66.

Hume, Joseph, 194 5 attacks Mait-
land, 259 et seq.

Huskisson, 49.

India threatened by Napoleon, 137.
Ischia, 137.

Jaffnapatam, Collector of, 83 ;

his vagaries, ib.; Maitland's

dealings with him, 84, 85 ;

effect on the service, 90.
Jamaica, Relation of, to San

Domingo, 43, 45.
Janina, Pachalik of, 219.
Joseph, King of Naples, 136.

K

Kandy, King of, 74, 78, 92, 93,
128 ; High Priest of, 93,
121 5 High Steward of, 93.

King, Rufus, his views on Mait-
land's Treaty, 50, 51.

Kinnaird, Lord, joins the * Friends
of the People,* 11.

Kirbey, Suicide of, 123.

298

INDEX

Laing, Chief Secretary of Malta,

153.

Lampedusa, 139, 153, 154, 157-

Langhorne, Admiral, 145, 146.

La Plume, 39.

Lauderdale, Earls of, 2, 3, 4, 11.

Layard, General, officiates for
Maitland, 164, 172.

Leclerc, General, Death of, 35.

Le Mesurier, Mr, 279.

Lieven, Prince, accompanies Capo-
distrias to Cirencester, 231.

Lieven, Princess, 229.

Liston, Sir Robert, collaborates
with Maitland at Phila-
delphia, 55; Ambassador at
Constantinople, i6o, 215,
287.

Liverpool, Lord, 126.

Livingston, 157,

Lombe, Sir Thomas, 3.

Londonderry, Marquis of, 269.

Louisiana, Maitland's views on,
21.

Lushington, Chief Justice of
Ceylon, 108; interferes with
Maitland, 109; quarrels with
him, no et seq.; dismissed
from Council, 113; retires
to England, 114.

M

Macaulay, Lord, views on the
Belleisle Expedition, 59.

Macdonell, Consul at Algiers, 279.

Macfarlane, General, appeals to
Maitland for help, 163.

Mackintosh, Sir James, views on
Maitland's government in
Ceylon, 126, 127 ; and in
Parga, 259.

Madeira, Maitland's views on, 54.

Magdalen, Earldom of, 266.

Maida, Battle of, 137.

Maine, Sir Henry, 74, 81.
Maitland Clan, i.
Maitland, Frederick, 70.
Malay troops in Ceylon, their
behaviour, 89; and character,

93-

Malta, Maitland's early views on,
22, 23; reform of the judicial
system of, 152; claimed by
Sicily, 153; the Universita
of, 155 et seq.; corruption in,
155; corn supply, 156; Savary
imprisoned at, 168; reform of
hospital, 171; Maitland dies
there, 279.

March, Marquis of, 2.

Marlborough, Duke of, 114.

Martinengo, Count, Rebellion of,
248, 249, 250; attempts to
bribe Maitland, 251; tried,
condemned and pardoned,
252 5 championed by Mr
Hume, 264.

Mavromichaelis, 215.

Mediterranean Sea, England ex-
pelled from, 275 becomes an
English lake, 135; Maitland
recommends one commander-
in-chief for, 165.

Metternich, his hatred of Capo-
distrias, 229.

Midhat Pacha, 178.

Minorca, 65, 132, 135, 139;
Russian bid for, 178, 179,
180.

Minto, Lord, Maitland's cor-
respondence with, 100, loi,
125.

Mocenigo, Count, 182, 187;
opens Maitland's despatches,
189, 258.

Monck, Sir Charles, 257, 258.

Moore, Sir John, comparison
with Maitland, 70.

Morea, Rebellion in the, 203,
249, 253.

Murat to be recognised by
England, 154, 163,

Mylius, Suicide of, 123.

INDEX

299

N

Napixr, Charles, 112, 240, 244;
offers to march on Constanti-
nople, /^., 246. ; views on the
lonians, 271, 273, 279.

Naples, Rebellion in, 203, 254;
Ferdinand of, 243.

Nayler, Sir George, 212.

Nesbitt sails for San Domingo,
29 ; falls sick, 29 ; confusion
caused by his non-arrival, 43.

Nightingall, Sir Miles, accom-
panies Maitland to Phila-
delphia, 54 5 carries his de-
spatches to London, 64.

Nile, Battle of, 135.

North, Frederick, birth, 72 ;
Governor of Ceylon, ib. ;
Chief Secretary of Corsica,
ih. ; career there, ib. ; char-
acter, 73 ; abolishes feudal
tenure in Ceylon, 75 ; scares
native society, 76 ; his cinna-
mon contract, 76, jj^ 78, 88 5
his irrigation works, jj ;
resigns the governorship to
Maitland, 79 5 Maitland's
high opinion of him, 90 ; his
views on Kandy, 82 ; his
dealings with the Chief
Justice, 108 ; a favourite
with the lonians, 174, 175 ;
succeeds to Earldom of Guil-
ford, 246 ; his extravagances
in the Islands, 246, 247; *the
semi-delirious lord,' 271.

O

Oakes, Sir Hildebrand, 144.

Oczakoff Debate, 10.

Oglander, Colonel, Consul at

Tunis, 224, 225, 226.
O'Gorman repulses Toussaint

rOuverture, 36.
Orkney, Earl of, views on the

lonians, 277.

Paoli, Pasquale de, 72, 73.

Parga, 173, 178, 182, 204, 215 f^
seq.^ 253, 258 ; cession of,
resolved on, 259; * darkest
blot on our national reputa-
tion,' 268.

Paris, Treaty of, i8i, 192, 194,
197, 199, 257 ; Maitland's
views of, 200.

Parker, Sir Hyde, assists Mait-
land, 41 ; opposes the evacua-
tion of San Domingo, 48.

Pellew, Sir Edward, supports Mait-
land, 62.

Petrides, Plato, 183.

Peyrade, Execution of, 41.

Peystre (De) repulses Toussaint
rOuverture, 36.

Pitt, William, 29 ; views on San
Domingo, 44 ; and the Medi-
terranean, 134, 140.

Plague in Malta, 142 et seq.

Plasket, Sir Richard, 156, 161,
279.

Ponza, 137.

Popham, Sir Home, 19.

Prevesa, 216, 219, 255.

Prince Regent ratifies the Ionian
Constitution, 202, 212, 214,

Privy Council, Maitland sworn
of, 69.

Procida, 137.

QuiBERON, 6d, 63.

Quincey (De). See De Quincey.

R

RiGAUD opposes Toussaint I'Ouver-
ture, 29 ; his relations with
Maitland, 35, 42 ; menaces
Jeremie, 48 ; supplants Tous-

300

INDEX

saint, 57 5 and breaks with

him, ih.
Rome, Appeals to, from Malta,

148.
Rovigo, Duke of, imprisoned at

Malta, 168, 169.

Saint Anne's, Soho, 179.

Saint John of Jerusalem, Knights
of, 143, 1 80 5 Church of, 148,
151 5 throne of the Grand
Master of the Order of, 150 ;
Order of, 210.

Saint Michael and Saint George,
Order of, 159 j 209 et se^.

Saint Spiridion, 210.

Saint Vincent, Battle of, 27, 177.

Saint Vincent, Earl, 63.

San Domingo, Instructions for the
evacuation of, 31 5 Maitland
lands there, 34 ; evacuation
of commenced, 38 ; com-
pleted, 48 5 to be retained
as a protection for Jamaica,
44 ; climate of, 32, 36, 46,
94.

Sanctuary, Right of, in Malta, 148.

Santa Lucia, 70.

Savary, Duke of Rovigo,imprisoned
at Malta, 168, 169.

Sawbridge, Alderman, ally of
Maitland, 10, 11.

Sebastiani, 23, 187.

Seringapatam, Mutiny at, 122,
123,

Shee, Sir George, 106.

Sheridan, R. B., ally of Maitland,

II.
Sicily, Lord William Bentinck
in, 145 ; refuses pratique to
Malta, 146 ; Macfarlane in,
163 ; representative govern-
ment in, 167 et seq.y 180.
Smyrna, The plague in, 146 ; trade
w^ith, 160.

Spenser, Colonel, 40, 49.
Surinam Expedition, 70.

Talleyrand, 73.

Texel, Battle of, 27, 177.

Theotoky, Baron, 214.

Tiburon Expedition, 41 ; it fails,
42, 70.

Tilsit, Treaty of, 138, 187, 216.

Tippoo Sahib, Maitland's defence
of, 8, 9 5 connection of his
family with the Vellore
Mutiny, 102.

Toulon Expedition, Maitland's
views on, 14, 15, 177.

Toussaint I'Ouverture masters
San Domingo, 28 ; his char-
acter, 3 5 ; attacks the English,

36 ; accepts Maitland's terms,

37 ; his ignorance, 52, 53,
70.

Trincomalee, Importance of, in

Maitland's day, 96.
Tripoli, Pacha of, 162.
Tunis, The plague in, 146.
Tyers, Henry, 153.

U

Universita of Malta, 155 ^r seq.

Valetta, Maitland lands at, 142 ;

the plague in, 146.
Venice, Fall of, 176.
Ventotiene, 137.
Verona, 176.
Vonizza, 216, 219.
Volterra, 251.

INDEX

301

w

Walpole, Horace, 179.

Walthamstow, Maitland at, 32.

Warrington, Colonel, 162.

Washington, George, 26.

Wellington, Duke of, 46, 47, 62,
231.

Whitbread, Samuel, ally of Mait-
land, 10, II, 15 ; attacks
him, 23.

Whyte, General, commands in
San Domingo, 29 ; resigns
the command to Maitland,

30.
Wilberforce, William, his anxiety
for the missionaries in Ceylon,

118 J interviews Castlereagh,

119 5 Maitland's resentment
at his interference, I20,

Wilkes, 19.

Wilson, Robert, 23.

Wood, Alexander, placed on special
duty in Ceylon, 85, 161, 173,

Wright, Doctor, accompanies
Maitland to Philadelphia, 54.

Wright, legal assistant to Mait-
land, 153.

York, Duke of, 207,

Zante, 173, 175, 248, 249, 253.

THE END

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